PATRIOTISM THROUGH LITERATURE 



THE WORLD 
^ DEMOCRACY 




LYMAN P. POWELL 

CHARLES M. CURRY 




TH] 




^ I9I4 



THE 
WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 



Copyrighl, igig, by 
Rand McNali.y & Company 



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R 



©CI.A5 15131 

Ai-ri -3 1919 



^\^ I 



THE CONTENTS 



The Acknowledgments 
The Preface . 



PAGE 

xiv 



PART I. FUNDAMENTALS OF DEMOCRACY 
THE AMERICAN VIEW 

Introductory 

Americanism Hartley B. Alexander, 

American Tradition Franklin K. Lane 

The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence 

Woodrow Wilson 

The War Message 

Flag Day Address 

Program of the World's Peace . 
Righteous and Triumphant Force 
The Mount Vernon Address . 
The Issues of the War 

Democracy 

The Problem of Democracy 



Woodrow Wilson 
Woodrow Wilson 
Woodrow Wilson 
Woodrow Wilson 
Woodrow Wilson 
Woodrow Wilson 
James Russell Lowell 
Frederic C. Morehouse 
Autocracy against Democracy Frederick D. Bramhall 
The Moral Value of Patriotism . Shailer Mathews 

The Law of High, Resolute Endeavor 

Theodore Roosevelt 

Frederick Palmer 

Franklin K. Lane 

Frederick G. Mntterer 

John H. Finley 

. Hermann Hagedorn 



Some Things Men Fight For 
The Spirit of America . 
My Debt to My Country . 
A Message from France 
The Hope of the World . 



3 

9 

i6 

24 
30 
43 
51 
56 
61 
66 
74 
79 
82 
84 

91 
04 
II 

13 

18 
24 



PART II. FOUNDATIONS OF DEMOCRACY: 
ALLIED STATESMEN AND WRITERS 

Introductory 131 

What England Stands For . . . James Bryce 138 

The Spirit of France Rene Viviani 147 

Pro Patria Maurice Maeterlinck 155 

V 



vi THE CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Belgian Pride Emile Verhaeren 159 

Britain's War Aims .... David Lloyd George 163 

The Spirit of Democracy . . . Arthur Henderson 175 

Ennobling Tragedy Gilbert Murray 179 

The American Invasion of England Rudyard Kipling 183 

Democracy and Education . . A. C. Benson 186 

PART III. EMBATTLED DEMOCRACY: 
LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 

Introductory ; . . . . 195 

The Letters 

1. A western soldier reflects the splendid spirit of 

millions 200 

2. An Idaho aviator gives expression to the crusading 

spirit 200 

3. A Slovenian volunteer 201 

4. An American in the Royal Flying Corps writes 

some of his philosophy . . . . . . . 202 

5. An Irish poet at the front to another in Ireland . 204 

6. Preparing for the front — and remembering 

Mothers' Day 205 

7. A French soldier of eighteen to his parents on 

starting for the front 205 

8. From a marine who afterward fell near Chateau- 

Thierry 206 

9. A corporal of field artillery to his brother in 

Indiana 207 

10. After three years, this Canadian soldier takes 

things as they come 208 

11. A lieutenant of field artillery tells of a night 

expedition 209 

12. A boy from Massachusetts writes his father 

concerning French farming 211 

13. From a New Jersey engineer 212 

14. An Illinois boy is enthusiastic 213 

15. How the war was won for democracy . . . . 214 



THE CONTENTS vii 

PAGE 

1 6. A judge-advocate prefers to stay until it is 

finished 215 

17. A French officer to a friend at home . . . . 216 

18. A New Zealand soldier is cheerful 217 

19. A marine tells of refugees and destruction . . 219 

20. An Iowa birdman has a chance to try his para- 

chute 220 

21. An Ohio private on returning from going "over 

the top" 221 

22. A St. Louis officer tells why he is proud of being 

an American 222 

23. A Michigan lieutenant has a good opinion of the 

French soldier 223 

24. Report of a memorable Christmas evening in a 

French village 223 

25. A sergeant of artillery writes between shots . 226 

26. An engineer has high praise for the French . . 227 

27. A lawyer corporal from Louisiana pays tribute to 

the French 228 

28. An Oklahoma sergeant expresses his joy at our 

making good 229 

29. From a village near the front a French mother 

writes to an American mother 230 

30. A California airman writes of the fourteenth of 

July 231 

31. A signal corps man writes of the famous drive 

of July 18 232 

32. A Tennessee heutenant tells of the greatest sight 

of his life i^i 

33. A private tells of a night air attack and, inciden- 

tally, why he fights 2'^^ 

34. A western corporal reports a "stranger than fic- 

tion " true incident 236 

35. A lieutenant of a telegraph battalion relates a 

good spy story . . . . . . .... 238 

36. A young lieutenant tells of work and play in a 

French fortress 239 



viii • THE CONTENTS 

PAGE 

37. vShowing a scarcity of news 240 

38. A Yankee officer who believes in his men . . 240 

39. A Scotch lieutenant agrees with Sherman . . 241 

40. A Kansas private tells his sister the great news 

of July 243 

41. An untried Vermont officer becomes a veteran 

over night 244 

42. A Red Cross worker tells a shell-shock story .* . 246 

43. A Pennsylvania soldier tells his mother about 

going to the front-line trenches 248 

44. A Tennessee doctor in the British service gets by 

the German censor 249 

45. A New Orleans private breaks the news and 

congratulates himself 251 

46. A lieutenant from Ohio begins as follows . . . 254 

47. A woman canteen worker with the Red Cross 

tells of a strenuous time 254 

48. A New York soldier tells of Major Lufbery's death 255 

49. A French professor to his mother 256 

50. A New York private, killed in action, put this in 

his will 257 

51. An American poet in the Foreign Legion writes 

to his mother 257 

52. A young aviator's last letter to his father . . 258 

53. " Forward all the same ! " ....... 258 

54. One of four soldier sons tells of a brother fallen 259 

55. An Italian poet-soldier who fell on the Isonzo 

leading his platoon into battle 259 

56. A young Illinois lawyer, who fell on the field of 

honor 260 

57. A Canadian captain to his father, just before going 

into action 261 

58. The last letter from a young English poet-soldier 262 

59. A French lieutenant writes to his captain's father 263 

60. The commanding officer writes to the widow of an 

English poet and scholar 264 



THE CONTExNTS ix 

PAGE 

PART IV. EMBATTLED DEMOCRACY: 

POEMS FROM THE FIELD OF ACTION AND 

FROM BEHIND THE LINES 

Introductory 267 

The New Crusade .... Katharine Lee Bates 273 

The Old Kings Margaret Widdemer 274 

The Knights Ahbie Farwell Brown 275 

In the Time of Strife .... Frank L. Stanton 277 

"Men Who March Away" . . . Thomas Hardy 277 

Song of Liberty Louise Ay res Garnett 278 

Tecumseh and the Eagles .... Bliss Carman 279 

Memorial Day .... . Theodosia Garrison 282 

The White Ships and the Red . . . Joyce Kilmer 283 

The Declaration of Independence 

Theodosia Garrison 286 

America, to Arms! . . Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaf 286 

The Great Blue Tent .... Edith Wharton 287 

Shoulder to Shoulder Clinton Scollard 289 

The Avenue of the Allies .... Alfred Noyes 289 

Pro Patria Sir Owen Seaman 292 

America Eleanor Duncan Wood 294 

The LTnion Alfred Noyes 294 

To the American People . . . Laurence Binyon 295 

Here: and There F. W. Bourdillon 297 

Young and Old Henry Allsop 297 

The Empty Coat Lon Brier 298 

Letters from Home Eric P. Dawson 299 

Renunciation Strickland Gill il an 299 

The Father of the Man .... Edgar A. Guest 300 

Socks Jessie Pope 302 

In Homeland Clinton Scollard 303 

A Boy Over There Frank L. Stanton 303 

A Girl's Song Katharine Tynan 304 

Things That Were Yours . . . Dyneley Hussey 305 

When I Come Home Leslie Coulson 305 

High Heart Aline Kilmer 306 



X THE CONTENTS 

PAGE 

In France Francis Ledwidge 307 

Cha Till Maccruimein .... E. A. Mackintosh 307 

The Spires of Oxford . . . . Winifred M. Letts 308 

At the Wars Robert Nichols 309 

Home Thoughts in Laventie . E, Wyndham Tennant 310 

While Summers Pass .... Aline Michaelis 312 

Sympathy . 313 

Our Hitch in Hell William Childs 314 

Yanks James W. Foley 3 1 5 

Marching Song Dana Burnet 317 

The Road Gordon Alchin 319 

Kilmeny Alfred Noyes 320 

"Form Fours" Frank Sidgwick 321 

Half-Past Eleven Square .... C. Fox Smith yii 

M-U-D JohnOxenham 324 

The Half-Hour's Furlough .... Joseph Lee 325 

On Leaving Ireland ..... T. M. Kettle 328 

To My Daughter Betty, the Gift of God T. M. Kettle 328 

The Cricketers of Flanders . . James Norman Hall 329 

What Can I Do? Lee Wilson Dodd 330 

Easter, 1918 John Richards 331 

Dawn Daniel M. Henderson 332 

The Lads of Liege Percy Mackaye 332 

Belgium the Bar-Lass ... A. Mary F. Robinson 334 

The Man-Birds E. D. Gibbs 335 

Eyes in the Air Gilbert Frankau 335 

Hymn of the Airman in the Hour of Battle . 

James A. Mackereth 337 

The Dead Aviator Blanche M. Kelly 340 

Qui Vive? Grace Ellery Channing 340 

The Name of France Henry van Dyke 342 

Vive la France! .... Richard Butler Glaenzer 343 

The Fate of France . . . Edwin Markham 344 

The Green Estaminet A.P.H. 345 

Edith Cavell ....... Laurence Binyon 346 

Joan of Arc to an English Sister . . . J. H. S. 348 

Kitchener's March .... Amelia Josephine Burr 349 



THE CONTENTS xi 

PAGE 

''All the Hills and Vales Along" 

Charles Hamilton Sorley 350 

A Lark above the Trenches . John William Streets 351 

A Soldier's Litany '^ Richard Raleigh '^ 352 

Prayer of a Soldier in France . . . Joyce Kilmer 353 

Facing the Shadows William I. Grundish 354 

A Prayer from the Ranks John Fletcher Hall 354 

Death and the Fairies .... Patrick Macgill 355 

I Have a Rendezvous with Death . . Alan Seeger 356 

Alan Seeger Grantland Rice 357 

From Home E. A. Mackintosh 358 

The Soldier Rupert Brooke 359 

The Volunteer Herbert Asquith 359 

In Flanders Fields John A/cCrae 360 

The Star-Shell Patrick Macgill 361 

Release W. N. Hodgson 361 

The Fallen Subaltern .... Herbert Asquith 362 

*' — ^ But a Short Time to Live" . Leslie Coulson 363 

The Red Cross Bloke 364 

Death Song of the Ninth Lancers /. Laurence Rentoul 366 

In the Morning Patrick Macgill 366 

Courage Dyneley Hiissey 368 

Before Action .W.N. Hodgson 369 

Into Battle Julian H. F. GrenfeU 369 

Ro-UGE Bouquet Joyce Kilmer 371 

''This Is the Last" .... Gilbert Waterhouse 373 

The Anxious Dead John McCrae 373 

PART V. SOME IDEALS OF DEMOCRACY IN 
STORIES AND SKETCHES 

Introductory 377 

Extra Men Harrison Rhodes 383 

A Hymn of Hate Boyd Cable 393 

What We Owe to France .... Ian Hay 402 
*'They Have Come for the Sake of France" . 

Hawthorne Daniel 406 

The American Pioneer .... Franklin K. Lane 412 



xii THE CONTENTS 



PAGE 



The Bowmen — A Fantasy of the War Arthur Machen 41O 

Yokels Harold Seton 421 

The Man with His Hat in His Hand . . Clark Howell 423 

Americanus Sum Edward A. Steiner 426 

The Soldier Who Conquered Sleep Pierre Mille 434 

The Soul of Flanders . Hcndrik Willem van Loon 440 

PART VI. THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY IN 
DRAMA AND SONG 

Introductory 445 

The Fiery Pillar .... Louise Ayres Garnett 449 

Peace avith a Sword 463 

APPENDIX 

Maps 479 

The Notes 490 



A LIST OF THE MAPS 

The World in 1914 • End sheet 

I. The Western Battle Front 479 

II. Alsace-Lorraine before and after 1 87 1 480 

III. Mittel-Europa 481 

IV. Germany's Blockade Zones 482 

V. The Italian Battle Line 483 

VI. The Macedonian Battle Front 484 

VII. Austria-Hungary and Its Peoples 485 

VIII. The Partitions of Poland, 1772- 1795 486 

IX, The Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Its Final Disposition . 486 

X. Russia's Endangered Provinces 487 

XL The Battle Front in Asiatic Turkey 488 

XI I. Nationalities in Turkey 489 

XIII. The Commercial Highways of the World .... 490 

Europe in 1914 End sheet 



THE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

The compilers of this volume extend their grateful acknowledg- 
ments to the following authors and publishers for permission to use 
copyrighted selections : 

Hartley B. Alexander and the Marshall Jones Company for 
"Americanism," from Liberty and Democracy. 

Frederic C. Morehouse for "The Problem of Democracy," from 
The Living Church. 

Frederick D. Bramhall and the University of Chicago Press for 
"Autocracy against Democracy," from Democracy the Basis for 
World-Order. 

John H. Finley for "A Message from France." 

Frederick G. Mutterer for "My Debt to My Country." 

Hermann Hagedorn and the Macmillan Company for The Hope 
of the World. 

Doubleday, Page and Company for James Bryce's "What Eng- 
land Stands JPor," from The War of Democracy. 

B. W. Huebsch for Arthur Henderson's "The Spirit of Democ- 
racy," from The Aims of Labor. 

TJie Bellman for A. C. Benson's "Democracy and Education." 

E. P. Dutton and Company for the letter headed "A French lieu- 
tenant writes to his captain's father," from .1 Crusader of France; 
Patrick MacGill's "Death and the Fairies," "The Star-Shell," 
and "In the Morning," from Soldier Songs; and Boyd Cable's "A 
Hymn of Hate," from Between the Lifies. 

Katharine Lee Bates for "The New Crusade," from The Retinue 
and Other Poems. 

Margaret Widdemer and Henry Holt and Company for "The 
Old Kings," from The Old Road to Paradise. 

Frank L. Stanton for "In the Time of Strife" and "A Boy Over 
There." 

Abbie Farwell Brown for the poem "Peace with a Sword"; Abbie 
Farwell Brown and Harper and Brothers for "The Knights," pub- 
lished in Harper's Magazine. 

Thomas Hardy for "Men Who March Away." 

Louise Ayres Garnett and the Oliver Ditson Company, publishers 
of the words and music, for "Song of Liberty." 

Bliss Carman for "Tecumseh and the Eagles." 

Theodosia Garrison for "Memorial Day" and "The Declaration 
of Independence." 

Mrs. Joyce Kilmer and George H. Doran Company for Joyce 
Kilmer's "The White Ships and the Red," "Prayer of a Soldier in 
France," and "Rouge Bouquet," all from the memorial edition of 
Joyce Kilmer's Poems, Essays and Letters. 

George H. Doran Company for John Oxenham's "M-u-d," from 
High Altars. 

xiv 



THE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xv 

Aline Kilmer and Good Housekeeping for "High Heart." 

Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff and George H. Doran Company 
for "America, to Arms," from Fifes and Drums. 

Edith Wharton for "The Great Blue Tent." 

Clinton Scollard for "Shoulder to vShoulder" and "In Homeland." 

Sir Owen Seaman and Constable & Company, Ltd., for "Pro 
Patria." 

Life for Eleanor Duncan Wood's "America." 

Henry Allsop and G. Bell and Sons, Ltd., for "Young and Old," 
from Songs from a Dale in War-Time. 

Eric P. Dawson and Good Housekeeping for "Letters from Home." 

Strickland GilHlan and Forbes and Company for "Renunciation." 

Edgar A. Guest and The Red Book Magazine for "The Father of 
the Man." 

Grant Richards, Ltd., for "Socks," from Jessie Pope's War Poems. 

Sidgwick and Jackson, Ltd., for Katharine Tynan's "A Girl's 
Song," from Flower of Youth; Frank Sidgwick's "Form Fours," 
from Some Verse by Frank Sidgwick; and Herbert Asquith's "The 
Volunteer" and "the Fallen Subaltern," from The Volunteer and 
Other Poems. 

John Lane. Company for E. A. Mackintosh's "Cha Till Maccrui- 
mein," and "From Home," from A Highland Regiment, and Rupert 
Brooke's "The Soldier," from the Collected Poems of Rupert Brooke. 

Frederick A. Stokes Company for Robert Nichols "At theWars," 
from Ardours and Endurances; Thomas Kettle's "On Leaving Ire- 
land" and "To My Daughter Betty, the Gift of God," from Poems 
and Parodies; and Alfred Noyes's "Kilmeny," from Ope7i Boats, 
and "The Avenue of the Allies." 

Franklin K. Lane and Frederick A. Stokes Company for "American 
Tradition," "The Spirit of America, " and "The American Pioneer," 
from The American Spirit. 

The Yale Review and Frederick A. Stokes Company for Alfred 
Noyes's "The Union." 

B. H. Blackwell for E. Wyndham Tennant's "Home Thoughts 
in Laventie," from Worple Flit, and Other Poems; and Gordon 
Alchin's "The Road," from Oxford and Flanders. 

Aline Michaelis for "While Summers Pass." 

The Red Cross Magazine for "Sympathy" and "The Red Cross 
Bloke." 

James W. Foley and The Saturday Evening Post for "Yanks." 

Dana Burnet for "Marching Song." 

John Murray for Joseph Lee's "The Half-Hour's Furlough," from 
Ballads of Battle; and W. N. Hodgson's "Release," from The Muse 
in Arms, and "Before Action," from Verse and Prose. 

The Spectator for James Norman Hall's "The Cricketers of Flan- 
ders," first published in its pages. 

Lee Wilson Dodd for "What Can I Do?" 

The Outlook for John Richards' "Easter, 1918." 

Amelia Josephine Burr and George H. Doran Company for 
"Kitchener's March," from Life and Living. 



xvi THE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 

Percy Mackaye for "The Lads of Liege," from The Present 
Hour, published by the Macmillan Company. 

The Times (London) for A. Mary F. Robinson's "Belgium the 
Bar-Lass," which was first published in The Times Literary Supple- 
ment of August 20, 19 14. 

The New York Herald for E. D. Gibbs's "The Man Birds." 

Blanche M. Kelly and America for "The Dead Aviator." 

Grace Ellery Channing for "Qui Vive?" published in the New 
York Tribune. 

Richard Butler Glaenzer for "Vive la France!" from Beggar and 
King, published by the Yale University Press. 

Edwin Markham and McClure's Magazine for "The Fate of 
France." 

W. R. Sorley for Charles Hamilton Sorley's "All the Hills and 
Vales Along," from Marlborough and Other Poems. 

D. Appleton and Company for Grantland Rice's "Allan Seeger," 
from Songs of the Stalwart. 

Harrison Rhodes and Harper and Brothers for "Extra Men." 

The World's Work for Hawthorne Daniel's "They Have Come 
for the Sake of France." 

G. P. Putnam's Sons for Arthur Machen's "The Bowmen — A 
Fantasy of the War," from The Bowmen and Other Legends of the 
War. 

Harold Seton for "Yokels," published in The Outlook. 

Hendrik Willem van Loon and The Nation for "The Soul of 
Flanders." 

Louise Ayres Garnett for "The Fiery Pillar." 

Osbourne McConathy and Louise Ayres Garnett for the song 
program "Peace with a Sword." 

Laurence Binyon's "Edith Cavell" and the selections from James 
Russell Lowell, Emile Verhaeren, Gilbert Murray, and Gilbert 
Frankau are used by permission of and by special arrangement with 
the Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 



-THE PREFACE 

While the introductory chapters to the various sections 
of this book deal in detail with the selections chosen, the 
following very general statement may be of use in sug- 
gesting the plan of the work: 

This book does not undertake to retell the history of 
the Great World War. Its object is to give a body of 
material so arranged as to furnish a suitable and inter- 
esting approach toward an appreciation of the convic- 
tions and ideals that led the free and peace-loving peoples 
of the world to unite in opposing the most powerful and 
aggressive military power ever developed in human his- 
tory. Its entire aim is to lead to a sane, helpful, exalted 
patriotism. 

The book differs in its plan from others in the same 
field by offering more avenues of approach to its cen- 
tral purpose. While it contains the important official pro- 
nouncements dealing with the causes of the war and the 
terms of peace, it recognizes the value of the popular 
responses to the call for patriotic service. Hence the use 
of letters, poems, stories, descriptive sketches, drama, 
familiar address, and essay. 

With a few exceptions all the material in the book has 
been called out by the war. The exceptions only make it 
clear that the ideals for which we have fought are the ideals 
which have always been at the heart of democracy. 

The selections are grouped under six headings. Part I 
is planned to reflect the American view of democracy 
through a group of selections from President Wilson's 
addresses and a large number of selections from other 
American spokesmen. Part II reflects the spirit and 



xviii THE PREFACE 

ideals of the allied nations through their leading statesmen 
and writers. Part III allows us to look at things as they 
are seen by the man in the service, reflected through the 
medium of his letters. Part IV is made up of poetry 
called forth by the war, by American and English writers. 
Part V is made up of a group of stories and sketches. 
Part VI comprises a one-act drama and a song program 
an^anged for dramatic presentation. 

A group of maps has been included to cover all the 
important geographical features of the war and to illus- 
trate the more prominent of the issues involved in the 
peace discussions. 

The editorial work in the way of introductory chapters, 
notes, etc., is intended to help the reader to a clearer 
understanding of, and appreciation of, the text. As the. 
book will no doubt often be used where ready access to 
extended books of reference is difficult, the brief annota- 
tions may serve to satisfy some of the more immediate 
needs of the student. 

L. P. P. 
C. M.C. 



PART I 

FOUNDATIONS OF DEMOCRACY: 
THE AMERICAN VIEW 



We hold these truths to be self-evident: 
that all men are created equal; that they 
are endowed by their Creator with certain 
unalienable rights; that among these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; 
that, to secure these rights, governments 
are instituted among men, deriving their 
just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned; that whenever any form of govern- 
ment becomes destructive of these ends, it 
is the right of the people to alter or to 
abolish it, and to institute a new govern- 
ment, laying its foundation on such 
principles, and organizing its powers in 
such form, as to them shall seem most 
likely to effect their safety and happiness. 

— From The Declaration of Independence 



THE 
WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 



PART I 

INTRODUCTORY 

Th§ object of this book is to help the reader to a high 
and reasonable patriotism. The greatest of all wars is 
now, it would seem, so far as fighting is concerned, a 
matter of history. The world must now turn to the 
formidable task of making a peace that shall be so secure 
that wars and rumors of wars shall no longer disturb the 
nations. Devastated countries must, as far as possible, 
be restored to their former fruitfulness. A whole world 
in arms must be transformed into a world of peaceful 
farm and workshop. Accumulated injustices handed 
down from the past must be righted. These are tasks 
worthy of man's supreme effort. 

It is true, of course, that the outrages and indignities 
wrought upon human life by this world war can never 
be compensated for. ' The heritage of personal suffer- 
ing, the ruined and broken lives — no peace council can 
estimate the value of these and assess the responsibility 
for them. The millions of young men who lie on the far- 
flung battlefields of Europe, of Asia, and of Africa, and 
beneath the waters of the Seven Seas, can live again 
only in the light of heroic memory. The other millions 
of innocent non-combatants — the men, women, and 



4 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

children — ruthlessly destroyed, will long haunt the heart 
of mankind with images of horror. 

As citizens of a great nation which has had the honor 
of being associated with other free nations of the world 
in crushing the strongholds of autocracy and in taking 
the first great steps toward making the world safe for 
democracy, we shall do well to take stock of the ideals 
that have nerved the Allied Armies as crusaders. No 
merely material interests could have brought about such 
unity of spirit. In the speeches of statesmen, in the 
discussions by essayists and historians, in stories and 
plays, in letters and poems from men and women in the 
service or from civilians at home — in all these there; is the 
constant impression that the speaker feels himself the 
instrument of a great righteous force. The foundations 
of such a faith — democracy, self-government, rights of 
man, whatever the name used — are the bases of justified 
patriotism. 

"Democracy is not a mere form of government. It 
does not depend on ballot boxes or franchise laws or any 
constitutional machinery. These are but its trappings. 
Democracy is a spirit and an atmosphere, and its essence 
is trust in the moral instincts of the people. A tyrant is 
not a democrat, for he believes in government by force; 
neither is a demagogue a democrat, for he believes in 
government b}^ flattery. A democratic country is a 
country where the government has confidence in the 
people and the people in the government and in itself, 
and where all are united in the faith that the cause of 
their country is not a mere matter of individual or national 
self-interest, but is in harmony with the great moral 
forces which rule the destinies of mankind. No form of 
government is so feeble as a democracy without faith. 
But a democracy armed with faith is not merely strong: 



INTRODUCTORY 5 

it is invincible; for its cause will live on, in defeat and 
disaster, in the breast of every one of its citizens. " ^ 

The group of selections in Part I is chosen to reflect, 
from many different points of view, the faith that forms 
the substance of America's interpretation of democracy. 
This faith cannot be completely summed up in any one 
brief statement. Like a rich jewel of inany facets, its 
beauty and full significance become more apparent when 
approached one after another from many directions. 

"Americanism" takes four great historical documents 
and analyzes them as expressions of the political faith of 
America. The growing and widening import of the mean- 
ing of **all men" since that expression was used in the 
great Declaration, the profound " complexification " of 
the doctrine of "rights" — these are traced on through 
Monroe's message, through Lincoln's memorial address 
at Gettysburg, through President Wilson's War Message, 
thus bringing the record down to our own day. What 
the nation believes in to-day is shown to be a natural 
development from its starting point. "The American 
Tradition," likewise, following the course of our history, 
points out that our one supreme tradition is the right of 
man to oppose injustice. But there is a wide distinction 
drawn between tradition as a mere form that kills and as 
a spirit that makes alive. In the latter sense it becomes 
the beaten trail for humanity, to be modified here and 
there by the vision and energy of wise leaders in order 
that man may have "a swifter and safer way to the 
Valley of Heart's Desire." In "The Meaning of the 
Declaration of Independence," we are told that patriot- 
ism consists of more than mere profession. It consists 
of some very practical things — even commonplace things. 

1 Alfred E. Zimmern, Introduction to The War and Democracy 
(London: Macmillan). 



6 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

It involves such things as the duty that lies nearest to 
our hand, the facing of facts with candor, the unselfish 
inclusion of the world in benefits sought, honesty and 
courage without fear of consequences, and the placing of 
human rights above all other rights. 

The selections from President Wilson's addresses have 
been chosen to reflect as fully as possible, within the 
limits, the official attitude of the United States in the 
Great War. They constitute a tremendous indictment 
of the aims and methods of the militaristic govern- 
ment of Germany. In the "War Message" itself are set 
forth the reasons that made it impossible for the United 
States longer to remain neutral when the most sacred 
rights of humanity were in the balance. In the "Flag 
Day Address, " the special iniquities of the German 
Government directed toward us and toward the people 
of the various territories held as "pawns" receive a 
righteously indignant emphasis. Through the midst of 
these indictments runs the thread of a magnificent 
dream of peace based on such stable foundations that no 
autocratic power shall ever be able to shake them. The 
principles of such a peace and the actual terms upon 
which it may be built are outlined in detail in " Program 
of the World's Peace," "The Mount Vernon Address," 
and "The Issues of the War." In "Righteous and 
Triiunphant Force" Germany's arrogant threats and 
pretensions are met by the assertion of democracy's 
acceptance of the challenge "till the majesty and might 
of our concerted power shall fill the thought and utterly 
defeat the force of those who flout and misprize what we 
honor and hold dear. " 

In the selection from Lowell's "Democracy," we have 
an attempt to define the American conception of repre- 
sentative democracy as distinguished from "democracy 



INTRODUCTORY 7 

strictly defined." Here are emphasized, also, the fallacy 
of attempting a complete break with the past and the 
importance of purifying the quality of the public opinion 
from which governments derive their prosperity. This 
latter point is the topic discussed in "The Problem of 
Democracy" which follows, while in "Autocracy against 
Democracy" the spirit and methods of the two antago- 
nistic theories of government which have divided the 
world into two hostile camps are set in vivid contrast 
over against each other. 

But all manifestations of so-called patriotism are not 
of equal value. In the discussion of "The Moral Value 
of Patriotism," the qualities that constitute worthy 
patriotism are set forth. To make these points clear the 
author finds it necessary to look into the past to discover 
how the present ideals of nations have come to be what 
they are. As a result he concludes that "This is the 
patriotism of the future, a loyalty to a nation which by 
its own morality and purpose seeks, not only to make 
the world safe for democracy, but to make democracy 
safe for the world." In "The Law of High, Resolute 
Endeavor," there is a statement of what the attitude of 
American citizens should be toward the problems, both 
foreign and domestic, that confront the nation. While 
this statement was made long before many people believed 
in the possibility of a great world war, its significance is 
no less apparent and no less valuable now. It consti- 
tutes a sort of confession of faith of one of our most 
vigorously active public men. 

In the three selections that follow we are brought face 
to face with some of the intangible things that are present 
in the experience which we name patriotism. Love of 
the soil and the traditional heroism of fortitude that 
comes to us from the great figures of our past history are 



8 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

emphasized in "Some Things Men Fight For." Two of 
the qualities that help make up American character, 
"to make hard places easy" and the "desire to help the 
world," are concretely illustrated in "The Spirit of 
America." In "My Debt to My Country" is set forth 
what one of our loyal foreign-born citizens feels he owes 
to the inspiration and the opportunity which the United 
States has made possible for him. The clear distinc- 
tions between the effects of autocratic limitations and 
democratic possibilities are illustrated in an individual 
career. 

Finally, there is the problem of the future as it con- 
cerns the young. War is a terrible absorber of energy. 
It is easy to lose sight of the fact that even while a crisis 
exists we ought to remember that the fruits to come of 
sacrifice must be carefully prepared for. The necessity 
of never relaxing educational effort is the burden of "A 
Message from France." In "The Hope of the World," 
an appeal is made directly to the young people them- 
selves to see to it that they do not lose their heritage. 
Especially worthy attention is the appeal for the develop- 
ment of a "tradition of public service. " The perpetuity 
and success of a democracy depend entirely upon the 
presence of such a tradition. And with this stirring 
appeal to the future citizens of our country the selections 
suggesting the American view of the foundations of 
democracy may fitly close. 



AMERICANISM 

HARTLEY B. ALEXANDER 

[The author of this essay is the professor of philosophy in the 
University of Nebraska. He makes clear that our present position 
in the affairs of the world is due to the natural and necessary devel- 
opment of American ideals of liberty and democracy. The United 
States did not take part in the World War primarily to gain some 
selfish end, but to make the world a safe place for liberty-loving 
people. Americanism and world-democracy must stand or fall 
together.] 

Four great historical documents, marking progressive 
epochs in our national history, give the essential definition 
of Americanism in politics. First is the Declaration of 
Independence, signed July 4, 1776, proclaiming the prin- 
ciples by which the United States justify their inde- 
pendence of European domination. Second is President 
Monroe's message to Congress, of December 2, 1823, 
announcing the right of the peoples of the western hemi- 
sphere to pursue their political destinies without inter- 
ference from Old World powers. Third is Lincoln's 
memorial address at Gettysburg, November 19, 1863, in 
which the rights of Americans to their own continents 
are affirmed to be inalienably democratical, and without 
democracy to be forfeit. Fourth is the message delivered 
by President Wilson at the joint session of the two Houses 
of Congress, April 2, 19 17, asserting the value of the 
democratical polity to the whole territorial world and the 
right to it of the entire human race. 

These doctiments are not themselves causes of political 
conduct in any primary sense. Rather, each is a simi- 
mary of contemporary political conviction — from which 
fact arises the height of their significance as expression of 
the political faith of America. It is certainly true that 
this faith has been clarified and invigorated by the fine 



lo THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

26 intelligence of the expression ; for, more than to any other 
form of state, public intelligence is necessary to democ- 
racy. Nevertheless, as in every other form of state, the 
final sanction of government is the faith of the citizen; 
which is the impulse for that conduct whereof, in democ- 

30 racies, intelligence alone can set the pattern. The pat- 
terns of Americanism are its public utterances, with the 
four that have been mentioned in the stations of pre- 
eminence. 
Out of each of these documents may be chosen phrases 

35 which serve as texts of their fuller meaning. "All men 
are created equal .... unalienable rights .... 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" : this is the core 
of the Declaration of Independence, voicing in eighteenth 
century speech that belief of democrats in men's right to 

40 the self-responsible making of their own laws which is 
fundamental in our polity. It is true that this formal 
meaning of the pronouncement has received many mate- 
rial alterations in the course of a century of history (though 
none, certainly, that weaken the strength of the form); 

46 and among them, not the least, a vast extension of the 
meaning of "all men"- and a profound complexification 
of the doctrine of "rights." The men who signed the 
Declaration, though their minds were broad with the 
morning, were yet but conscious rebels. What they felt 

50 was less the tyranny of the 01 d World than the independ- 
ence of the New, and what they demanded was the right 
of free experimentation in lands unspoiled. The true 
foundation of the rights of man as they knew them was 
their own self-confidence in their own political sagacity. 

58 The beginning of American liberty was the commanding 
acceptance of responsibility. 

The Declaration proclaimed America's right to try out 
democracy; the Monroe Doctrine proclaimed both the 



AMERICANISM ii 

success of the experiment and the belHgerent intention 
to broaden its territorial marches. " The American eo 
continents, by the free and independent condition which they 
have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be 
considered as subjects for future colonization by any Euro- 
pean powers." The italicized phrase is the important 
one: it proclaims again the acceptance of responsibility, es 
no longer for experiment, but for huge expansion. The 
Monroe Doctrine, in effect, established a greater Mason 
and Dixon's line, having the natural seas for its delinea- 
tions. Unless history shall show greater consequences 
from President Wilson's War Message, it is the most 70 
ambitious political proclamation ever made effective. 
In its own consciousness the United States was no longer, 
as De Tocqueville and other sympathetic Europeans 
regarded it, merely an unexpectedly fruitful trial of 
precarious political theory; it was now confident and 75 
aggressive, with ambitions outpassing the grandiosities 
of emperors — and incidentally and immediately, defying 
emperors and their ambitions; for the direct occasion of 
Monroe's message was the threat of the Holy Alliance 
for the resubjection of South America and the Russian so 
threat of expansion in North America. 

The truly arrogant pretentiousness of the Monroe 
Doctrine is best realized when we contrast the sparseness 
of the human population in the western hemisphere with 
the relatively crowded condition of the eastern : virtually, 80 
since the democratic faith was but meagerly represented 
in the Old World at that time, it was a demand from an 
insignificant minority among men that they be possessed 
of a third of the world. Certainly, such a demand could 
never have received any general recognition had it not 00 
been coupled with a free invitation to all European peoples 
to colonize America in every sense save the political; 



12 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

the convincing corollary to the Monroe Doctrine was the 
open door to immigrants. It may be remarked that the 

98 situation is not greatly changed to-day. The Americas 
are still the most sparsely populated of the great habitable 
areas of our globe; the Monroe Doctrine is still in force. 
But the test of its strength is to come not from Europe 
but from Asia. The real issue, before Americans and 

100 Europeans alike, is now whether, in the interests of 
political independence, the western hemisphere must not, 
and in fairness, open the doors of immigration to the 
Oriental. Can the Caucasian west preempt this virginal 
domain to the lasting exclusion of the congested east? 

105 What is the meaning of "all men," in our Declaration? 
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address represents cognizance 
of the same fundamental problem from the angle of inter- 
nal organization; it is, as it were, the conscious self- 
measurement of the New World polity in the glass of its 

no own ideals. The speech looks back to the nation's 
beginnings, and, in a sense, it is a final reaffirmation of 
what Monroe had before affirmed: that the experimental 
stage of American democracy was passed, and that 
thenceforth, bulwarked by America, "government of the 

115 people, for the people, and by the people" should not 
perish from the earth. It affirmed this, not in view of 
external threat, but in the presence of internal ; in effect 
stating that America could not tolerate from any group 
of its own people the formation and perpetuation of an 

120 oligarchical or other form of anti-democratical state, that 
democracy alone should be free to develop in the western 
hemisphere, for the very reason that democracy is 
imperiled by non-democrat ical neighbors. The address 
was, in short, an apostolic profession that democracy is 

125 convinced of its own righteousness, and is intolerant of 
all dangerous rivals. 



AMERICANISM 13 

Supporting this profession there was a profounder 
meaning than the ostensible one of territorial union and 
political unity. The meaning of "all men" still called 
for definition, and Lincoln could not use the word "people" 130 
in any cant sense. He had long before proclaimed that 
the nation could not endure half slave and half free; 
he well knew that the crux of the war was the slave 
question; and no man could have been wiselier con- 
scious than he. of the fact that the settlement of that ques- 135 
tion for freedom must mean ultimately a redefinition of 
"people" and a new conception of American citizenship. 
The United States had liberally welcomed Europeans of 
many tongues and complexions, who should be the mak- 
ing of its people; now it was ready to take into the body i4o 
politic millions of that race which is most antipodal to the 
European. The enfranchisement of the American blacks 
is the most heroic act of political faith in history. True, 
the problem of readjustment has none of the simplicity 
which the idealists of that time dreamed it to have; it is 145 
a problem that now is and will long continue with us. 
But the faith that was in the Declaration and that forms 
the heart of Americanism to-day, faith in the civic nobility 
and therefore in the civic rights of all nature which we 
can call human, received in the enfranchisement of the 150 
Negroes its extreme attestation. From that time for- 
ward Americans could face the world, conscious that they 
had made themselves clean with their first profession. 
Race questions and class questions — as distinguished 
from questions of formal politics — will long continue to 155 
vex us, and eventually the Mongol problem will be huger 
than the Negro; but by implication all of these were 
settled, and not only for us, but for all democratical 
peoples, when our Civil War came to its issue. The 
civic man is henceforth of no preferred complexion and leo 



14 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

of no recognized caste — at least, this is now a fixed article 
in our American faith in a "government of the people": 
Americanism cannot be for "all men" in any lesser sense 
than for "men of all kindreds." 

165 The Revolutionary War established the privilege of 
democracy in the New World. A mature generation 
later that privilege was converted into an aggressi\'e 
right, balking the ambitious pretensions of the Cassars 
of that day in respect to the two western continents. 

170 Another generation matured, and the Civil War marked 
the purification of democracy in its own house, and a 
final clear-conscious recognition of the uttenfiost inten- 
tion of the term democracy. Now a third generation 
has matured and passed, and in a war outmeasuring all 

175 those that men have fought the United States is called 
once more, not only to stand for its political faith, but 
to expand the meaning of that faith. The stand and the 
expansion have both been made, and (true to the genius 
of his nation) the President has given their meaning in a 

180 penetrating phrase. "The world must be made safe 
for democracy; its peace must be planted upon tested 
foundations of political liberty." The World! Here, 
indeed, is expansion; our globe has shrunk too small for 
democratic and autocratic states to subsist together, 

185 nor can Ocean herself constrain them in separation. 
Democracy has issued her final defiance to all the citadels 
of absolutism, proclaiming no longer her right to inde- 
pendence, nor merely her right to her own free field, but 
now her purposed supremacy in all fields and over all 

190 polities. Here is arrogance of pretension outmatching 
Monroe's, whose broad-limned compromise breaks futile, 
like the old compromises of North and South. Democ- 
racy is now claiming for herself no lesser thing than the 
world. 



AMERICANISM 15 

The new declaration is fittingly accompanied by a 195 
reaffirmation of the old. The "tested foundations of 
political liberty" refer us once again to the trial which 
our national history has given to our national faith, 
proudly asserting that we have passed the trial with 
triimiph, and that the high self-confidence of the authors 200 
of the Declaration has been justified to their sons' sons. 
But more than this, the new declaration, like those which 
have preceded it, adds new meaning to the whole national 
faith. Our fight, said the President, is for the liberation 
of the world's peoples, "the German people included," — 205 
therein asserting the right of democracy to a kind of 
spiritual colonization, even in antagonistic lands. The 
assertion of such a right, unless it were the deepest of 
convictions, could only be the most incredible effrontery; 
and if conviction, it can have for its meaning naught 210 
save a new definition of "all men." Henceforth, the 
word "people" must include not merely men of all 
external complexions, but men of all internal complexions, 
not merely men of all classes, but men of all polities — 
and for the reason that there is but one true form of the 215 
truly human polity, and that is the democratical form. 
The faith that underlies such an assumption is prodi- 
gious; and it is in that faith that we are fighting, for it 
is the core of Americanism. Fighting, and at the same 
time watching and listening with an eager and amazing 220 
confidence for the first signs of response from the 
German people; for the President spoke only what all 
Americans in their hearts believe, when he said that our 
war is with institutions and not people. 

Americanism has received its definition in four great 225 
documents. Three of these have been issued upon the 
occasion of great wars, and the fourth, for near a century, 
has been as distinctly belligerent in character as the 



i6 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

mailed fist or the jangling sabre. Americanism is, obvi- 
230 ously, no pacifist faith. But it is, none the less, a faith. 
It is a faith vast in its pretensions beyond all dreams of 
autocrats; and it is a faith, despite its century of trial, 
little justified by what has transpired in human history. 
Yet in the face of autocrats and of history, it is inwardly 
235 unshaken and serene, religious in its confidence, miracu- 
lous in its hopes. Its foundation is something more 
constraining than experience and far more compelling 
than reason; for its foundation is an inner light, which 
for us is like a revelation, showing as in an apocalypse 
240 the common humanity of "all men." Americanism is a 
faith that men have died for, and that men are dying for 
to-day — whether it be a madness or divinity that hath 
touched them with it. 

AMERICAN TRADITION 

FRANKLIN K. LANE 

[The author is Secretary of the Interior. Before becoming a 
member of the Cabinet, he was prominent in public life as a member 
of the Interstate Commerce Commission and as a most eloquent 
speaker in the expression of our national ideals. While this address 
was made more than two years before the war began, it states in 
the most convincing fashion the traditional presence in our national 
consciousness of the ideal that it is the right and the duty of man to 
oppose injustice. Such an ideal is "not a mere group of words or a 
well-fashioned bit of governmental machinery." When the great 
crisis finally arrived, the unity of the nation in supporting the 
war showed that this ideal was a real and an active principle in our 
lives.] 

It has not been an easy task for me to decide upon a 
theme for discussion to-day. I know that I can tell you 
little of Washington that would be new, and the thought 
has come to me that perhaps you would be interested 
5 in what might be called a western view of American 
tradition, for I come from the other side of this conti- 
nent where all of our traditions are as yet articles of 



AMERICAN TRADITION 17 

transcontinental traffic, and you are here in the very- 
heart of tradition, the sacred seat of our noblest memories. 

No doubt you sometimes think that we are reckless of 
the wisdom of our forebears; while we at times have been 
heard to say that you live too securely in that passion for 
the past which makes men mellow but unmodern. 

When you see the West adopting or urging such meas- 
ures as presidential primaries, the election of United 
States Senators by popular vote, the initiative, the referen- 
dum and the recall as means supplementary to repre- 
sentative government, you shudder in your dignified way, 
no doubt, at the audacity and irreverence of your crude 
countrymen. They must be in your eyes as far from 
grace as that American who visited one of the ancient 
temples of India. After a long journey through wind- 
ing corridors of marble, he was brought to a single flicker- 
ing light set in a jeweled recess in the wall. "And what 
is this?" said the tourist. "That, sir," replied the 
guide, "is the sacred fire which was lighted 2,000 years 
ago and never has been out. " " Never been out? What 
nonsense! Poof! Well, the blamed thing's out now." 
This wild Westerner doubtless typifies those who without 
heed and in their hot-headed and fanatical worship of 
change would destroy the very light of our civilization. 
But let me remind you that all fanticism is not radical. 
There is a fanaticism that is conservative, a reverence 
for things as they are that is no less destructive. Some 
years ago I visited a fishing village in Canada peopled 
by Scotchmen who had immigrated in the early part of 
the nineteenth century. It was a place named Ingonish 
in Cape Breton, a rugged spot that looks directly upon 
the Atlantic at its crudest point. One day I fell into 
talk with a fisherman — a very model of a tawny-haired 
viking. He told me that from his fishing and his 



1 8 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

farming he made some $300 a year. "Why not come over 
into my country, " I said, "where you may make that in 
a month?" There came over his face a look of humiHa- 
tion as he replied, "No, I could not." "Why not?" 
I asked. "Because," said he, brushing his hand across 
his sun-burnt beard, "because I can neither read nor 
write." "And why," said I, "haven't you learned? 
There are schools here." "Yes, there are schools, but 
my father could not read or write, and I would have felt 
that I was putting a shame upon the old man if I had 
learned to do something he could not do." Splendid, 
was n't it ? He would not do what his father could not 
do. Fine! Fine as the spirit of any man with a senti- 
ment which holds him back from leading a full, rich life. 
Yet can you conceive a nation of such men — idolizing 
what has been, blind to the great vision of the future, fet- 
tered by the chains of the past, gripped and held fast in 
the hand of the dead, a nation of traditionalists, unable 
to meet the needs of a new day, serene, no doubt self- 
sufficient, but coming how far short of realizing that ideal 
of those who praise their God for that they serve his world ! 

I have given the two extremes; now let us return to 
our point of departure, and the first question to be asked 
is, "What are the traditions of our people?" 

What are the traditions of our people? This nation is 
not as it was one hundred and thirty-odd years ago when 
we asserted the traditional right of Anglo-Saxons to rebel 
against injustice. We have traveled centuries and cen- 
turies since then — measured in events, in achievements, 
in depth of insight into the secrets of nature, in breadth of 
view, in sweep of sympathy, and in the rise of ennobling 
hope. Physically we are to-day nearer to China than we 
were then to Ohio. Socially, industrially, commerciall}^ 
the wide world is almost a unit. And these thirteen states 



AMERICAN TRADITION 19 

have spread across a continent to which ha\^e been gath- 
ered the peoples of the earth. We are the "heirs of all 
the ages." Our inheritance of tradition is greater than 
that of an}' other people, for we trace back not alone to 
King John signing the Magna Charta in that little stone 
hut by the river side, but to Brutus standing beside the 
slain Caesar, to Charles Martel with his battle ax raised 
against the advancing horde of an old-world civilization, 
to Martin Luther declaring his square- jawed policy of 
religious liberty, to Columbus in the prow of his boat 
crying to his disheartened crew, "Sail on, sail on, and on! " 
Irishman, Greek, Slav, and Sicilian — all the nations of 
the world have poured their hopes and their history into 
this great melting pot, and the product will be — in fact, 
is — a civilization that is new in the sense that it is the 
blend of many, and yet is as old as the Egyptians. 

Surely the real tradition of such a people is not any one 
way of doing a certain thing; certainly not any set knd 
unalterable plan of procedure in affairs, nor even any 
fixed phrase expressive of a general philosophy unless it 
comes from the universal heart of this strange new people. 
Why are we here? What is our purpose? These ques- 
tions will give you the tradition of the American people, 
our supreme tradition — the one into which all others fall, 
and a part of which they are — the right of man to oppose 
injustice. There follow from this the right of man to 
govern himself, the right of property and to personal 
liberty, the right to freedom of speech, the right to make 
of himself all that nature will permit, the right to be one 
of many in creating a national life that will realize those 
hopes which singly could not be achieved. 

Is there any other tradition so sacred as this — so much 
a part of ourselves — this hatred of injustice? It carries 
in its bosom all the past that inspires our people. Their 



20 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

no Spirit of unrest under wrong has lighted the way for the 
nations of the world. It is not seen alone in Kansas and 
in California, but in England, where a liberal ministry 
has made a beginning at the restoration of the land to the 
people ; in Germany, where the citizen is fighting his way 

115 up to power; in Portugal, where a university professor 
sits in the chair a king so lately occupied; in Russia, 
emerging from the Middle Ages, with her groping Doimia; 
in Persia, from which young Shuster was so recently 
driven for trying to give to a people a sense of national 

120 self-respect ; in India, where an emperor moves a national 
capital to pacify submerged discontent; and even in far 
Cathay, the mystery land of Marco Polo, immobile, 
phlegmatic, individualistic China, men have been waging 
war for the philosophy incorporated in the first ten lines 

125 of our Declaration of Independence. 

Here is the effect of a tradition that is real, not a mere 
group of words or a well-fashioned bit of governmental 
machinery — real because it is ours; it has come out of 
our life; for the only real traditions a people have are 

130 those beliefs that have become a part of them, like the 
good manners of a gentleman. They are really our 
sympathies — sympathies born of experience. Subjec- 
tively they give standpoint; objectively they furnish 
background — a rich, deep background like that of some 

135, master of light and shade, some Rembrandt, whose 
picture is one great glowing mystery of darkness save in 
a central spot of radiant light where stands a single figure 
or group which holds the eye and' enchants the imagina- 
tion. History may give to us the one bright face to look 

140 upon, but in the deep mystery of the background the real 
story is told; for therein, to those who can see, are the 
groping multitudes feeling their way blindly toward the 
light of self-expression. .... 



AMERICAN TRADITION 21 

There are no grown-ups in this new world of democracy. 
We are trying an experiment such as the world has never 115 
seen. Here we are, so many million people at work 
making a living as best we can; 90,000,000 people cover- 
ing half a continent — rich, respected, feared. Is that 
all we are? Is that why we are? To be rich, respected, 
feared ? Or have we some part to play in working out the 150 
problems of this world? Why should one man have so 
much and many so little? How may the many secure a 
larger share in the wealth which they create without de- 
stroying individual initiative or blasting individual capacity 
and imagination? It was inevitable that these questions 155 
should be asked when this republic was established. Man 
has been struggling to have the right to ask these ques- 
tions for four thousand years; and now that he has the 
right to ask any questions, surely we may not with reason 
expect him to be silent. It is no answer to make that i«o 
men were not asking these questions a hundred years ago. 
So great has been our physical endowment that until 
the most recent years we have been indifferent as to the 
share which each received of the wealth produced. We 
could then accept cheerfully the coldest and most logical les 
of economic theories. But now men are wondering as 
to the future. There may be much of envy and more 
of malice in current thought; but underneath it all there 
is the feeling that if a nation is to have a full life it must 
devise methods by which its citizens shall be insured 170 
against monopoly of opportunity. This is the meaning of 
many policies the full philosophy of which is not generally 
grasped — the regulation of railroads and other public serv- 
ice corporations, the conservation of natural resources, 
the leasing of public lands and water powers, the control 175 
of great combinations of wealth. How these movements 
will eventually express themselves none can foretell, but 



22 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

in the process there will be some who will dogmatically 
contend that "Whatever is, is right," and others who 

180 will march under the red flag of revenge and exspoliation. 
And in that day we must look for men to meet the false 
cry of both sides — " gentlemen unafraid " who will neither 
be the money-hired butlers of the rich nor power-loving 
panderers to the poor. 

185 Assume the right of self-government, and society 
becomes the scene of an heroic struggle for the realization 
of justice. Take from the one strong man the right to 
rule and make others serve, the right to take all and hold 
all, the power to grant or to withhold, and you have set 

190 all men to asking, "What should I have, and what should 
my children have?" And with this come all the perils of 
innovation and the hazards of revolution. 

To meet such a situation the traditionalist who believes 
that the last word in politics or in economics was uttered 

195 a century ago is as far from the truth as he who holds 
that the temporary emotion of the public is the stone- 
carved word from Sinai. 

A railroad people are not to be controlled by ox-team 
theories, declaims the young enthusiast for change. An 

200 age that dares to tell of what the stars are made; that 
weighs the very suns in its balances ; that mocks the birds 
in their flight through the air, and the fish in their dart 
through the sea; that transforms the falling stream into 
fire, light, and music; that embalms upon a piece of plate 

205 the tenderest tones of the himian voice; that treats dis- 
ease with disease ; that supplies a new ear with the same 
facility with which it replaces a blown-out tire; that 
reaches into the very grave itself and starts again the 
silent heart — surely such an age may be allowed to think 

^10 for itself somewhat upon questions of politics. 

Yet with all our searchings and our probings, who 



AMERICAN TRADITION 23 

knows more of the human heart to-day than the old 
Psalmist? And what is the problem of government 
but one of human nature? .... The foundation of 
government is man — changing, inert, impulsive, limited, 215 
sympathetic, selfish man. His institutions, whether 
social or political, must come out of his wants and out 
of his capacities. The problem of government, therefore, 
is not always what should be done but what can be 
done. We may not follow the supreme tradition of the 220 
race to create a newer, sweeter world unless we give heed 
to its complementary tradition that man's experience 
cautions him to make a new trail with care. He must 
curb courage with common-sense. He may lay his first 
bricks upon the twentieth story, but not until he has made 225 
sure of the solidity of the frame below. The real tradi- 
tion of our people permits the mason to place brick upon 
brick wherever he finds it most convenient, safest, and 
most economical; but he must not mistake thin air for 
structural steel. 230 

Let me illustrate the thought that I would leave with 
you by the description of one of our western railroads. 
Your train sweeps across the desert like some bold knight 
in a joust, and when about to drive recklessly into a sheer 
cliff it turns a graceful curve and follows up the wild 235 
meanderings of a stream until it reaches a ridge along 
which it finds its flinty way for many miles. At length 
you come face to face with a great gulf, a canyon — yawn- 
ing, resounding and purple in its depths. Before you lies 
a path, zigzagging down the canyon's side to the very 2*0 
bottom, and away beyond another, slighter trail climbs up 
upon the opposite side. Which is our way? Shall we 
follow the old trail? The answer comes as the train 
shoots out across a bridge and into a tunnel on the oppo- 
site side, coming out again upon the highlands and 245 



24 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

looking into the Valley of Heart's Desire where the wist- 
ful Rasselas might have lived. 

When you or I look upon that stretch of steel, we 
wonder at the daring of its builders. Great men they 

250 were who boldly built that road — great in imagination, 
greater in their deeds — for they were men so great that 
they did not build upon a line that was without tradition. 
The route they followed was made by the buffalo and the 
elk ten thousand years ago. The bear and the deer fol- 

255 lowed it generation after generation, and after them came 
the trapper, and then the pioneer. It was already a trail 
when the railroad engineer came with transit and chain 
seeking a path for the great black stallion of steel. 

Up beside the stream and along the ridge the track was 

260 laid. But there was no thought of following the old 
trail downward into the canyon. Then the spirit of the 
new age broke through tradition, the canyon was leaped 
and the mountain's heart pierced, that man might have 
a swifter and safer way to the Valley of Heart's Desire. 

THE MEANING OF THE DECLARATION OF 
INDEPENDENCE 

WOODROW WILSON 

[This selection comprises the major part of President Wilson's 
address delivered at Independence Hall, Philadelphia, July 4, 19 14. 
While it antedates the beginning of the war by a month, it empha- 
sizes the same conceptions of patriotism, the same passion for high 
ideals in public life that have animated his later messages and 
addresses. No doubt we have fallen into the habit of taking the 
Declaration of Independence for granted without inquiring very 
closely into what its principles and methods would mean if trans- 
lated into terms of present-day life. The address points the way of 
such an interpretation and urges the need of a renewed dedication 
to the spirit of the great Declaration. When the final paragraphs 
are read in the light of the events of the last four years, they seem 
prophetic in their suggestion of the proud part our nation has been 
and is now playing in the most amazing and stupendous drama of 
the world's history.] 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 25 

Have you ever read the Declaration of Independence 
or attended with close comprehension to the real char- 
acter of it when you have heard it read? If you have, 
you will know that it is not a Fourth of July oration. 
The Declaration of Independence was a document pre- 
liminary to war. It was a vital piece of practical business, 
not a piece of rhetoric ; and if you will pass beyond those 
preliminary passages which we are accustomed to quote 
about the rights of men and read into the heart of the 
document, you will see that it is very express and detailed, 
that it consists of a series of definite specifications con- 
cerning actual public business of the day. Not the busi- 
ness of our day, for the matter with which it deals is past, 
but the business of that first revolution by which the 
Nation was set up, the business of 1776. Its general 
statements, its general declarations, cannot mean any- 
thing to us unless we append to it a similar specific body 
of particulars as to what we consider the essential business 
of our own day. 

Liberty does not consist, my fellow citizens, in mere 
general declarations of the rights of man. It consists 
in the translation of those declarations into definite 
action. Therefore, standing here where the Declaration 
was adopted, reading its businesslike sentences, we ought 
to ask ourselves what there is in it for us. There is 
nothing in it for us unless we can translate it into the 
terms of our own conditions and of our own lives. We 
must reduce it to what the lawyers call a bill of particu- 
lars. It contains a bill of particulars, but the bill of 
particulars of 1776. If we would keep it alive, we must 
fill it with a bill of particulars of the year 19 14. 

The task to which we have constantly to readdress 
ourselves is the task of proving that we are worthy of 
the men who drew this great declaration and know what 



26 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

they would have done in our circumstances. Patriotism 
consists in some very practical things — practical in that 
they belong to the life of every day, that they wear no 
extraordinary distinction about them, that they are 
connected with commonplace duty. The way to be 
patriotic in America is not only to love America, but to 
love the duty that lies nearest to our hand and know that 
in performing it we are serving our country. There are 
some gentlemen in Washington, for example, at this very 
moment who are showing themselves very patriotic in 
a way which does not attract wide attention but seems 
to belong to mere everyday obligations. The members 
of the House and Senate who stay in hot Washington to 
maintain a quorum of the Houses and transact the all- 
important business of the Nation are doing an act of 
patriotism. I honor them for it, and I am glad to stay 
there and stick by them until the work is done. 

It is patriotic, also, to learn what the facts of our 
national life are and to face them with candor. I have 
heard a great many facts stated about the present busi- 
ness condition of this country, for example — a great 
many allegations of fact, at any rate, but the allegations 
do not tally with one another. And yet I know that 
truth always matches with truth; and when I find some 
insisting that everything is going wrong and others 
insisting that everything is going right, and when I know 
from a wide observation of the general circumstances of 
the country taken as a whole that things are going 
extremely well, I wonder what those who are crying out 
that things are wrong are trying to do. Are they trying 
to serve the country, or are they trying to serve something 
smaller than the country? Are they trying to put hope 
into the hearts of the men who work and toil every day, 
or are they trying to plant discouragement and despair 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 27 

in those hearts? And why do they cry that everything 
is wrong and yet do nothing to set it right? If they love 70 
America and anything is wTong amongst us, it is their 
business to put their hand with ours to the task of setting 
it right. When the facts are known and acknowledged, 
the duty of all patriotic men is to accept them in candor 
and to address themselves hopefully and confidently to 75 
the common counsel which is necessary to act upon them 
wisely and in universal concert 

A patriotic American is a man who is not niggardly 
and selfish in the things that he enjoys that make for 
human liberty and the rights of man. He wants to so 
share them with the whole world, and he is never so 
proud of the great flag under which he lives as when 
it comes to mean to other people as well as to himself 
a symbol of hope and liberty. I should be ashamed of 
this flag if it did anything outside America that we ss 
would not permit it to do inside of America. 

The world is becoming more complicated every day, 
my fellow citizens. No man ought to be foolish enough 
to think that he understands it all. And, therefore, I 
am glad that there are some simple things in the world. 90 
One of the simple things is principle. Honesty is a per- 
fectly simple thing. It is hard for me to believe that in 
most circumstances when a man has a choice of ways he 
does not know which is the right way and which is the 
wrong way. No man who has chosen the wrong way 95 
ought even to come into Independence Square; it is holy 
ground which he ought not to tread upon. He ought 
not to come where immortal voices have uttered the 
great sentences of such a document as this Declaration 
of Independence upon which rests the liberty of a whole 100 
nation 

The most patriotic man, ladies and gentlemen, is 



28 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

sometimes the man who goes in the direction that he 
thinks right even when he sees half the world against him. 

105 It is the dictate of patriotism to sacrifice yourself if you 
think that that is the path of honor and of duty. Do not 
blame others if they do not agree with you. Do not die 
with bitterness in your heart because you did not con- 
vince the rest of the world, but die happy because you 

no believe that you tried to serve your country by not selling 
your soul. Those were grim days, the days of 1776. 
Those gentlemen did not attach their names to the 
Declaration of Independence on this table expecting ^ 
holiday on the next day, and that Fourth of July was not 

115 itself a holiday. They attached their signatures to that 
significant docimient knowing that if they failed it was 
certain that every one of them would hang for the failure. 
They were committing treason in the interest of the liberty 
of three million people in America. All the rest of the 

120 world was against them and smiled w4th cynical incredu- 
lity at the audacious undertaking. Do you think that 
if they could see this great Nation now they would 
regret anything that they then did to draw the gaze of 
a hostile world upon them? Every idea must be started 

125 by somebody, and it is a lonely thing to start anything. 
Yet if it is in you, you must start it if you have a man's 
blood in you and if you love the country that you profess 
to be working for. 

I am sometimes very much interested when I see gentle- 

130 men supposing that popularity is the way to success in 
America. The way to success in this great country, 
with its fair judgments, is to show that you are not afraid 
of anybody except God and His final verdict. If I did 
not believe that, I should not believe in democracy. If 

135 I did not believe that, I should not believe that people 
can govern themselves. If I did not believe that the 



DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 29 

moral judgment would be the last judgment, the final 
judgment, in the minds of men as well as the tribunal of 
God, I could not believe in popular government. But 
I do believe these things, and, therefore, I earnestly m 
believe in the democracy not only of America but of every 
awakened people that wishes and intends to govern and 
control its own affairs. 

It is very inspiring, my friends, to come to this that 
may be called the original fountain of independence and i« 
liberty in America and here drink draughts of patriotic 
feeling which seem to renew the very blood in one's veins. 
Down in Washington sometimes when the days are hot 
and the business presses intolerably and there are so 
many things to do that it does not seem possible to do loo 
anything in the way it ought to be done, it is always 
possible to lift one's thought above the task of the moment 
and, as it were, to realize that great thing of which we are 
all parts, the great body of American feeling and American 
principle. No man could do the work that has to be 155 
done in Washington if he allowed himself to be separated 
from that body of principle. He must make himself 
feel that he is a part of the people of the United States, 
that he is trying to think not only for them, but with 
them, and then he cannot feel lonely. He not only m 
cannot feel lonely, but he cannot feel afraid of anything. 

My dream is that as the years go on and the world 
knows more and more of America it will also drink at 
these fountains of youth and renewal; that it also will 
turn to America for those moral inspirations which lie 165 
at the basis of all freedom; that the world will never 
fear America unless it feels that it is engaged in some 
enterprise which is inconsistent with the rights of human- 
ity; and that America will come into the full light of the 
day when all shall know, that she puts human rights 170 



30 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

above all other rights and that her flag is the flag not 
only of America but of humanity. 

What other great people has devoted itself to this 
exalted ideal? To what other nation in the world can 

175 all eyes look for an instant sympathy that thrills the 
whole body politic when men anywhere are fighting for 
their rights? I do not know that there will ever be a 
declaration of independence and of grievances for man- 
kind, but I believe that if any such document is ever 

180 drawn it will be drawn in the spirit of the American 
Declaration of Independence, and that America has 
lifted high the light which will shine unto all generations 
and guide the feet of mankind to the goal of justice and 
liberty and peace. 

THE WAR MESSAGE 

WOODROW WILSON 

[The War Message was delivered before a joint session of the two 
houses of Congress on the evening of April 2, 19 17. Solemnly, 
with a full sense of the tremendous responsibility involved in 
leading a great, peace-loving nation into the most terrible of all 
wars, the President set forth the acts of the Imperial German Gov- 
ernment which showed it to be the "natural foe to liberty." The 
phrasing of the message was at once felt to express adequately and 
eloquently the attitude which practically the entire nation had 
come to hold regarding the inner meaning of the titanic struggle 
which had been going on in Europe for two and a half years, as well 
as the special indignation felt at the growing series of outrages per- 
petrated against the well-defined rights of the United States and its 
citizens. Some of these phrases at once became popular catchwords 
repeated over and over by speakers and writers from one end of the 
country to the other. The British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, 
in a message to the American people, spoke of these "glowing 
phrases" as illuminating the horizon and making "clearer than 
ever the goal we are striving to reach. " "There are three phrases, " 
he continued, "which will stand out forever in the story of this 
crusade. The first is that ' The world must be made safe for democ- 
racy. ' The next, ' The menace to peace and freedom lies in the 
existence of autocratic Governments backed by organized force 
which is controlled wholly by their will and not by the will of their 
people, ' and the crowning phrase is that in which he declares that 



THE WAR MESSAGE 31 

'A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained except by 
the partnership of democratic nations. ' " Without doubt, President 
Wilson's power of precipitating in language what was struggling for 
utterance in the minds of the people had much to do in securing 
and maintaining the splendid unity of purpose and action displayed 
throughout our participation in the war.] 

Gentlemen of the Congress: 

I have called the Congress into extraordinary ses- 
sion because there are serious, very serious, choices of 
policy to be made, and made immediately, which it 
was neither right nor constitutionally permissible that 
I should assume the responsibility of making. 

On the 3d of February last I officially laid before you 
the extraordinary announcement of the Imperial German 
Government that on and after the first day of February 
it was its purpose to put aside all restraints of law or 
of humanity and use its submarines to sink every ves- 
sel that sought to approach either the ports of Great 
Britain and Ireland or the western coasts of Europe or 
any of the ports controlled by the enemies of Germany 
within the Mediterranean. That had seemed to be the 
object of the German submarine warfare earlier in the 
war, but since April of last year the Imperial Government 
had somewhat restrained the commanders of its undersea 
craft in conformity with its promise then given to us 
that passenger boats should not be sunk, and that due 
warning would be given to all other vessels which its 
submarines might seek to destroy where no resistance 
was offered or escape attempted, and care taken that their 
crews were given at least a fair chance to save their lives 
in their open boats. 

The precautions taken were meager and haphazard 
enough, as was proved in distressing instance after 
instance in the progress of the cruel and unmanly business, 
but a certain degree of restraint was observed. 



32 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

The new policy has swept even- restriction aside. 
Vessels of even^ kind, whatever their flag, their character, 
their cargo, their destination, their errand, have been 
rutlilessly sent to the bottom without warning, and 
without thought of help or mercy for those on board, 
the vessels of friendly neutrals along with those of belliger- 
ents. Even hospital ships and ships carr\-ing relief to the 
sorely bereaved and stricken people of Belgium, though 
the latter were pro\^ded with safe conduct through the 
proscribed areas b}^ the German Government itself and 
were distinguished by immistakable marks of identit3% 
have been suiik with the same reckless lack of compas- 
sion or of principle. 

I was for a little while unable to believe that such things 
would, in fact, be done by any Government that had 
hitherto subscribed to the humane practices of civilized 
nations. International law had its origin in the attempt 
to set up some law which would be respected and obser\'ed 
upon the seas, where no nation had right of dominion, 
and where lay the free highways of the world. By pain- 
ful stage after stage has that law been built up with 
meager enough results, indeed, after all was accomplished 
that could be accomplished, but always ■^'ith a clear \^ew 
at least of what the heart and conscience of mankind 
demanded. 

This minimiun of right the German Government has 
swept aside imder the plea of retaHation and neces^ty, 
and because it had no weapons which it could use at sea 
except these, which it is impossible to employ as it is 
emplo^-ing them without tliro^-ing to the winds all scruples 
of hiunanity or of respect for the imderstandings that 
were supposed to imderHe the intercourse of the world. 

I am not now thinking of the loss of propert^^ involved, 
immense and serious as that is, but onlv of the wanton 



THE WAR MESSAGE 33 

and wholesale destruction of the lives of noncombatants, 
men, women, and children engaged in pursuits which es 
have always, even in the darkest periods of modern his- 
tory, been deemed innocent and legitimate. 

Property can be paid for; the lives of peaceful and 
innocent people cannot be. 

The present German warfare against commerce is a to 
warfare against mankind. It is a war against all nations. 
American ships have been sunk, American lives taken, 
in ways which it has stirred us very deeply to learn of, 
but the ships and people of other neutral and friendly 
nations have been sunk and overwhelmed in the waters in 75 
the same way. There has been no discrimination. The 
challenge is to all mankind. Each nation must decide 
for itself how it will meet it. The choice we make for our- 
selves must be made with a moderation of counsel and a 
temperateness of judgment befitting our character and our so 
motives as a Nation. We must put excited feeling away. 

Our motive will not be revenge or the victorious asser- 
tion of the physical might of the Nation, but only the 
vindication of right, of human right, of which we are only 
a single champion. 8i> 

When I addressed the Congress on the 26th of Feb- 
ruary last I thought that it would suffice to assert our 
neutral rights with arms, our right to use the seas against 
unlawful interference, our right to keep our people safe 
against unlawful violence. But armed neutrality, it now 9» 
appears, is impracticable. Because submarines are in 
effect outlaws when used as the German submarines 
have been used against merchant shipping, it is impossible 
to defend ships against their attacks as the law of nations 
has assumed that merchantmen would defend themselves »5 
against privateers or cruisers, visible craft giving chase 
upon the open sea. 



34 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

It is common prudence in such circimistances — j2:rim 
necessity, indeed — to endeavor to destroy them before 

100 they have shown their own intention. They must be 
dealt with upon sight, if dealt with at all. 

The German Government denies the right of neutrals 
to use arms at all within the areas of the sea which it has 
proscribed, even in the defense of rights which no modern 

105 publicist has ever before questioned their right to defend. 
The intimation is conveyed that the armed guards which 
we have placed on our merchant ships will be treated as 
beyond the pale of law and subject to be dealt with as 
pirates would be. 

no Armed neutrality is ineffectual enough at best; in 
such circumstances and in the face of such pretensions 
it is worse than ineffectual; it is likely to produce what 
it was meant to prevent; it is practically certain to draw 
us into the war without either the rights or the effective- 

115 ness of belligerents. 

There is one choice we cannot make, we are incapable 
of making: We will not choose the path of submission 
and suffer the most sacred rights of our Nation and our 
people to be ignored or violated. The wrongs against 

120 which we now array ourselves are not common wrongs: 
they reach out to the very roots of human life. 

With a profound sense of the solemn and even tragical 
character of the step I am taking and of the grave respon- 
sibilities which it involves, but in unhesitating obedience 

125 to what I deem my constitutional duty, I advise that 
the Congress declare the recent course of the Imperial 
German Government to be in fact nothing less than war 
against the Government and people of the United States; 
that it formally accept the status of belligerent which 

130 has thus been thrust upon it and that it take immediate 
steps not only to put the country in a more thorough 



THE WAR MESSAGE 35 

state of defense, but also to exert all its power and employ 
.all its resources to bring the Government of the German 
Empire to terms and end the war. 

What this will involve is clear. It will involve the 13.5 
utmost practicable cooperation in counsel and action 
with the Governments now at war with Germany, and as 
incident to that the extension to those Governments of 
the most liberal financial credits in order that our resources 
may so far as possible be added to theirs. m 

It will involve the organization and mobilization of all 
the material resources of the country to supply the 
materials of war and serve the incidental needs of the 
Nation in the most abundant and yet the most economical 
and efficient way possible. 14.5 

It will involve the immediate full equipment of the 
navy in all respects, but particularly in supplying it 
with the best means of dealing with the enemy's sub- 
marines. 

It will involve the immediate addition to the armed 150 
forces of the United States already provided for by law 
in case of war at least 500,000 men, who should, in my 
opinion, be chosen upon the principle of universal liabil- 
ity to service, and also the authorization of subsequent 
additional increments of equal force so soon as they lt^ 
may be needed and can be handled in training. 

It will involve also, of course, the granting of adequate 
credits to the Government, sustained, I hope, so far as 
they can equitably be sustained by the present genera- 
tion, by well-conceived taxation. I say sustained so far m 
as may be equitable by taxation because it seems to me 
that it would be most unwise to base the credits which 
will now be necessary entirely on money borrowed. 

It is our duty, I most respectfully urge, to protect our 
people so far as we may against the very serious hardships les 



36 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

and evils which would be likely to arise out of the infla- 
tion which would be produced by vast loans. 

In carrying out the measures by which these things 
are to be accomplished we should keep constantly in 

170 mind the wisdom of interfering as little as possible in our 
own preparation and in the equipment of our own mili- 
tary forces with the duty — for it will be a very practical 
duty — of supplying the nations already at war with 
Germany with the materials which they can obtain only 

175 from us or by our assistance. They are in the field and 
we should help them in every way to be effective there. 

I shall take the liberty of suggesting, through the 
several executive departments of the Government, for 
the consideration of your committee^, measures for 

180 the accomplishment of the several objects I have men- 
tioned. I hope that it will be your pleasure to deal with 
them as having been framed after very careful thought 
by the branch of the Government upon which the respon- 
sibilit}^ of conducting the war and safeguarding the 

185 Nation will most directly fall. 

While we do these things, these deeply momentous 
things, let us be very clear and make very clear to all the 
world what our motives and our objects are. My own 
thought has not been driven from its habitual and nor- 

190 mal course by the unhappy events of the last two months, 
and I do not believe that the thought of the Nation has 
been altered or clouded by them. 

I have exactly the same thing in mind now that I had 
in mind when I addressed the Senate on the 2 2d of Jan- 

m uary last ; the same that I had in mind when I addressed 
the Congress on the 3d of February and on the 26th of 
February. 

Our object now, as then, is to vindicate the principles 
of peace and justice in the life of the world as against 



THE WAR MESSAGE 37 

selfish and autocratic power and to set up amongst the 2o5 
really free and self -governed peoples of the world such a 
concert of purpose and of action as will henceforth insure 
the observance of those principles. 

Neutrality is no longer feasible or desirable where the 
peace of the world is involved and the freedom of its 205 
peoples, and the menace to that peace and freedom lies 
in the existence of autocratic Governments backed by 
organized force which is controlled wholly by their will, 
not by the will of their people. We have seen the last of 
neutrality in such circumstances. 210 

We are at the beginning of an age in which it will be 
insisted that the same standards of conduct and of respon- 
sibility for wrong done shall be observed among nations 
and their Governments that are observed among the 
individual citizens of civilized states. 215 

We have no quarrel with the German people. We 
have no feeling toward them but one of sympathy and 
friendship. It was not upon their impulse that their 
Government acted in entering this war. It was not 
with their previous knowledge or approval. 220 

It was a war determined upon as wars used to be deter- 
mined upon in the old, unhappy days when peoples were 
nowhere consulted by their rulers and wars were pro- 
voked and waged in the interest of dynasties or little 
groups of ambitious men who were accustomed to use their 225 
fellow men as pawns and tools. 

■ Self-governed nations do not fill their neighbor states 
with spies or set the course of intrigue to bring about 
some critical posture of affairs which will give them an 
opportunity to strike and make conquest. Such designs 230 
can be successfully worked only under cover and where 
no one has the right to ask questions. 

Cunningly contrived plans of deception or aggression, 



38 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

carried, it may be, from generation to generation, can be 

235 worked out and kept from the light only within the privacy 
of courts or behind the carefully guarded confidences of 
a narrow and privileged class. They are happily impos- 
sible where public opinion commands and insists upon 
full information concerning all the nation's affairs. 

240 A steadfast concert for peace can never be maintained 
except by a partnership of democratic nations. No 
autocratic Government could be trusted to keep faith 
within it or observe its covenants. It must be a league 
of honor, a partnership of opinion. Intrigue would eat 

245 its vitals away, the plottings of inner circles who could 
plan what they would and render account to no one 
would be a corruption seated at its very heart. Only 
free peoples can hold their purpose and their honor 
steady to a common end and prefer the interests of man- 

250 kind to any narrow interest of their own. 

Does not every American feel that assurance has been 
added to our hope for the future peace of the world by 
the wonderful and heartening things that have been 
happening within the last few weeks in Russia? 

255 Russia was known by those who know it best to have 
been always in fact democratic at heart, in all the vital 
habits of her thought, in all the intimate relationships of 
her people that spoke their natural instinct, their habitual 
attitude toward life. 

360 Autocracy that crowned the summit of her political 
structure, long as it had stood and terrible as was the 
reality of its power, was not in fact Russian in origin, in 
character or purpose ; and now it has been shaken off and 
the great, generous Russian people have been added, in 

265 all their native majesty and might, to the forces that are 
fighting for freedom in the world, for justice, and for 
peace. Here is a fit partner for a League of Honor. 



THE WAR MESSAGE 39 

One of the things that have served to convince us that 
the Prussian autocracy was not and could never be our 
friend is that from the very outset of the present war it 270 
has filled our unsuspecting communities and even our 
offices of Government with spies and set criminal intrigues 
everywhere afoot against our national unity of council, 
our peace within and without, our industries, and our 
commerce. 275 

Indeed, it is now evident that its spies were here even 
before the war began, and it is, unhappily, not a matter 
of conjecture, but a fact proved in our courts of justice, 
that the intrigues which have more than once come peril- 
ously near to disturbing the peace and dislocating the 280 
industries of the country have been carried on at the insti- 
gation, with the support, and even under the personal direc- 
tion, of official agents of the Imperial German Govern- 
ment accredited to the Government of the United States. 

Even in checking these things and trying to extirpate 285 
them we have sought to put the most generous inter- 
pretation possible upon them because we knew that their 
source lay, not in any hostile feeling or purpose of the 
German people toward us (who were, no doubt, as igno- 
rant of them as we ourselves were) , but only in the selfish 290 
designs of a Government that did what it pleased and told 
its people nothing. But they have played their part in 
serving to convince us at last that that Government 
entertains no real friendship for us and means to act 
against our peace and security at its convenience. That 295 
it means to stir up enemies against us at our very doors 
the intercepted note to the German Minister at Mexico 
City is eloquent evidence. 

We are accepting this challenge of hostile purpose 
because we know that in such a Government, following 300 
such methods, we can never have a friend; and that in 



40 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 



the presence of its organized power, always lying in wait 
to accomplish we know not what purpose, there can be 
no assured security for the democratic Governments of 

305 the world. 

We are now about to accept the gage of battle with 
this natural foe to -liberty, and shall, if necessary, spend 
the whole force of the nation to check and nullify its 
pretensions and its power. We are glad, now that v/e 

210 see the facts with no veil of false pretense about them, 
to fight thus for the ultimate peace of the world and for 
the liberation of its peoples, the German people included; 
for the rights of nations great and small and the privilege 
of men everywhere to choose their way of life and of 

315 obedience. The world must be made safe for democrac}'. 
Its peace must be planted upon the trusted foundations 
of political liberty. 

We have no selfish ends to serve. We desire no con- 
quest, no dominion. We seek no indemnities for our- 

320 selves, no material compensation for the sacrifices we 
shall freely make. We are but one of the champions of 
the rights of mankind. We shall be satisfied when those 
rights have been made as secure as the faith and the 
freedom of nations can make them. 

325 Just because we fight without rancor and without 
selfish objects, seeking nothing for ourselves but what 
we shall wish to share with all free peoples, we shall, 
I feel confident, conduct our operations as belligerents 
without passion and ourselves observe with proud punc- 

330 tilio the principles of right and of fair play we profess 
to be fighting for. 

I have said nothing of the Governments allied with 
the Imperial Government of Germany because they 
have not made war upon us or challenged us to defend 

335 our right and our honor. 



THE WAR MESSAGE 41 

The Austro-Hungarian Government has indeed avowed 
its unqualified indorsement and acceptance of the reckless 
and lawless submarine warfare adopted now without dis- 
guise by the Imperial German Government, and it has 
therefore not been possible for this Government to receive 340 
Count Tarnowski, the ambassador recently accredited 
to this Government by the Imperial and Royal Govern- 
ment of Austro-Hungary; but that Government has not 
actually engaged in warfare against citizens of the United 
States on the seas, and I take the liberty, for the present 345 
at least, of postponing a discussion of our relations with 
the authorities at Vienna. 

We enter this war only where we are clearly forced 
into it because there are no other means of defending 
our rights. 350 

It will be all the easier for us to conduct ourselves as 
belligerents in a high spirit of right and fairness because 
we act without animus, not in enmity toward a people or 
with the desire to bring any injury or disadvantage upon 
them, but only in armed opposition to an irrespon- 355 
sible Government which has thrown aside all considera- 
tions of humanity and of right and is running amuck. 

We are, let me sa}^ again, the sincere friends of the 
German people, and shall desire nothing so much as the 
early reestablishment of intimate relations of mutual 36o 
advantage between us, however hard it may be for them, 
for the time being, to believe that this is spoken from 
our hearts. We have borne with their present Govern- 
ment through all these bitter months because of that 
friendship, — exercising a patience and forbearance which 365 
would otherwise have been impossible. 

We shall, happily, still have an opportunity to prove 
that friendship in our daily attitude and actions toward 
the millions of men and women of German birth and 



42 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

370 native sympathy who live amongst us and share our 
life, and we shall be proud to prove it toward all who are, 
in fact, loyal to their neighbors and to the Government 
in the hour of test. They are, most of them, as true and 
loyal Americans as if they had never known any other 

375 fealty or allegiance. They will be prompt to stand with 
us in rebuking and restraining the few who may be of 
a different mind and purpose. If there should be dis- 
loyalty, it will be dealt with with a firm hand of stern 
repression; but, if it lifts its head at all, it will lift it 

380 only here and there and without countenance except 
from a lawless and malignant few. 

It is a distressing and oppressive duty, gentlemen of 
the Congress, which I have performed in thus addressing 
you. There are, it may be, many months of fiery trial 

385 and sacrifice ahead of us. It is a fearful thing to lead 
this great, peaceful people into war, into the most .terrible 
and disastrous of all wars, civilization itself seeming to 
be in the balance. But the right is more precious than 
peace, and we shall fight for the things which we have 

390 always carried nearest our hearts — for democracy, for 
the right of those who submit to authority to have 
a voice in their own governments, for the rights and liber- 
ties of small nations, for a universal dominion of right 
by such a concert of free peoples as shall bring peace 

395 and safety to all nations and make the world itself at 
last free. 

To such a task we can dedicate our lives and our for- 
tunes, everything that we are and everything that we 
have, with the pride of those who know that the day 

400 has come when America is privileged to spend her blood 
and her might for the principles that gave her birth and 
happiness and the peace which she has treasured. God 
helping her, she can do no other. 



FLAG DAY- ADDRESS 43 

FLAG DAY ADDRESS 

WOODROW WILSON 

[This address was delivered in Washington, June 14, 1917. Two 
months had elapsed since the declaration of war against Germany. 
The day set apart for the celebration of the national emblem was 
an especially appropriate occasion to set forth once more the aims 
which the United States proposed to accomplish, and to present 
again the clear case of the country in the face of Germany's far- 
reaching plans. These schemes of aggrandizement with reference 
to the Balkans and the farther East, the whole sinister Middle- 
Europe plan, based upon the further crushing of many down-trodden 
nationalities, with other Pan-German aspirations, are all mercilessly 
exposed. As in the War Message, President Wilson is careful to 
emphasize the fact that our opposition is directed toward the 
"military masters" of Germany and not toward the German 
people. The German people "did not originate or desire this 
hideous war or wish that we should be drawn into it." He even 
prophesies that they will one day see that "we are fighting their 
cause, .... as well as our own."] 

We meet to celebrate Flag Day because this flag which 
we honor and under which we serve is the emblem of our 
unity, our power, our thought and purpose as a nation. It 
has no other character than that which we give it from 
generation to generation. The choices are ours. It 3 
floats in majestic silence above the hosts that execute 
those choices, whether in peace or in war. And yet, 
though silent, it speaks to us, — speaks to us of the past, 
of the men and women who went before us and of the 
records they wrote upon it. We celebrate the day of 10 
its birth; and from its birth until now it has witnessed 
a great history, has floated on high the symbol of great 
events, of a great plan of life worked out by a great 
people. We are about to carry it into battle, to lift it 
where it will draw the fire of our enemies. We are about 15 
to bid thousands, hundreds of thousands, it may be 
millions, of our men, the young, the strong, the capable 
men of the nation, to go forth and die beneath it on fields 
of blood far away — for what? For some unaccustomed 
thing? For something for which it has never sought the 20 



44 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

fire before? American armies were never before sent 
across the seas. Why are they sent now? For some new 
purpose for which this great flag has never been carried 
before, or for some old, familiar, heroic purpose for 
which it has seen men, its own men, die on every battle- 
field upon which Americans have borne arms since the 
Revolution ? 

These are questions which must be answered. We 
are Americans. We in our turn serve America, and can 
serve her with no private purpose. We must use her 
flag as she has always used it. We are accountable at 
the bar of history and must plead in utter frankness 
what purpose it is we seek to serve. 

It is plain enough how we were forced into the war. 
The extraordinary insults and aggressions of the Imperial 
German Government left us no self-respecting choice 
but to take up arms in defense of our rights as a free people 
and of our honor as a sovereign government. The mili- 
tary masters of Germany denied us the right to be neutral. 
They filled our unsuspecting communities with vicious 
spies and conspirators and sought to corrupt the opinion 
of our people in their own behalf. When they found 
that they could not do that, their agents diligently spread 
sedition amongst us and sought to draw our own citizens 
from their allegiance — and some of those agents were 
men connected with the official Embassy of the German 
Government itself here in our own Capital. They sought 
by violence to destroy our industries and arrest our 
commerce. They tried to incite Mexico to take up arms 
against us and to draw Japan into a hostile alliance with 
her, — and that, not by indirection, but by direct sugges- 
tion from the Foreign Office in Berlin. They impudently 
denied us the use of the high seas and repeatedly executed 
their threat that they would send to their death any of 



FLAG DAY ADDRESS 45 

our people who ventured to approach the coasts of 
Europe. And many of our own people were corrupted. 
Men began to look upon their own neighbors with sus- 
picion and to wonder in their hot resentment and surprise 
whether there was any community in which hostile 
intrigue did not lurk. What great nation in such circum- 
stances would not have taken up arms? Much as we 
had desired peace, it was denied us, and not of our own 
choice. This flag under which we serve would have 
been dishonored had we withheld our hand. 

But that is only part of the story. We know now as 
clearly as we knew before we were ourselves engaged that 
we are not the enemies of the German people and that 
they are not our enemies. They did not originate or 
desire this hideous war or wish that we should be drawn 
into it; and we are vaguely conscious that we are fighting 
their cause, as they will some day see it, as well as our 
own. They are themselves in the grip of the same 
sinister power that has now at last stretched its ugly 
talons out and drawn blood from us. The whole world 
is at war because the whole world is in the grip of that 
power and is trying out the great battle which shall 
determine whether it is to be brought under its mastery 
or fling itself free. 

The war was begun by the military masters of Ger- 
many, who proved to be also the masters of Austria- 
Hungary. These men have never regarded nations as 
peoples, men, women, and children of like blood and 
frame as themselves, for whom governments existed and 
in whom governments had their life. They have regarded 
them merely as serviceable organizations which they 
could by force or intrigue bend or corrupt to their own 
purpose. They have regarded the smaller states, in 
particular, and the peoples who could be overwhelmed 



46 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

by force, as their natural tools and instruments of domi- 

90 nation. Their purpose has long been avowed. The 
statesmen of other nations, to whom that purpose was 
incredible, paid little attention; regarded what German 
professors expounded in their classrooms and German 
writers set forth to the world as the goal of German 

95 policy as rather the dream of minds detached from prac- 
tical affairs, as preposterous private conceptions of 
German destiny, than as the actual plans of responsible 
rulers; but the rulers of Germany themselves knew all 
the while what concrete plans, what well-advanced 

100 intrigues, lay back of what the professors and the writers 
were saying, and were glad to go forward unmolested, 
filling the thrones of Balkan states with German princes, 
putting German officers at the service of Turkey to drill 
her armies and make interest with her government, 

105 developing plans of sedition and rebellion in India and 
Egypt, setting their fires in Persia. The demands made 
by Austria upon Serbia were a mere single step in a 
plan which compassed Etu-ope and Asia, from Berlin to 
Bagdad. They hoped those demands might not arouse 

110 Europe, but they meant to press them whether they did 
or not, for they thought themselves ready for the final 
issue of arms. 

Their plan was to throw a broad belt of German 
military power and political control across the very 

115 center of Europe and beyond the Mediterranean into 
the heart of Asia; and Austria-Hungary was to be as 
much their tool and pawn as Serbia or Bulgaria or Turkey 
or the ponderous states of the East. Austria-Hungary, 
indeed, was to become part of the central German Empire, 

120 absorbed and dominated by the same forces and influ- 
ences that had originally cemented the German states 
themselves. The dream had its heart at Berlin. It could 



FLAG DAY ADDRESS 47 

have had a heart nowhere else! It rejected the idea of 
solidarity of race entirely. The choice of peoples played 
no part in it at all. It contemplated binding- together 125 
racial and political units which could be kept together 
only by force, — Czechs, Magyars, Croats, Serbs, Ruma- 
nians, Turks, Armenians, — the proud states of Bohemia 
and Hungary, the stout little commonwealths of the 
Balkans, the indomitable Turks, the subtle peoples of 130 
the East. These peoples did not wish to be united. 
They ardently desired to direct their own affairs, would 
be satisfied only by undisputed independence. They 
could be kept quiet only by the presence or the constant 
threat of armed men. They would live under a common 135 
power only by sheer compulsion and await the day of 
revolution. 

But the German military statesmen had reckoned 
with all that and were ready to deal with it in their 
own way. ho 

And they have actually carried the greater part of 
that amazing plan into execution! Look how things 
stand. Austria is at their mercy. It has acted, not upon 
its own initiative or upon the choice of its own people, 
but at Berlin's dictation ever since the war began. Its 145 
people now desire peace, but cannot have it until leave 
is granted from Berlin. The so-called Central Powers 
are in fact but a single Power. Serbia is at its mercy, 
should its hands be but for a moment freed. Bulgaria 
has consented to its will, and Rumania is overrun. The 150 
Turkish armies, which Germans trained, are serving 
Germany, certainly not themselves, and the guns of , 
German warships lying in the harbor at Constantinople 
remind Turkish statesmen every day that they have 
no choice but to take their orders from Berlin. From 1.55 
Hamburg to the Persian Gulf the net is spread. 



48 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Is it not easy to understand the eagerness for peace 
that has been manifested from Berlin ever since the snare 
was set and sprung? Peace, peace, peace has been the 

160 talk of her Foreign Ofhce for now a year and more; not 
peace upon her own initiative, but upon the initiative 
of the nations over which she now deems herself to hold 
the advantage. A little of the talk has been public, but 
most of it has been private. Through all sorts of chan- 

165 nels it has come to me, and in all sorts of guises, but 
never with the terms disclosed which the German Govern- 
ment would be willing to accept. 

That Government has other valuable pawns in its 
hands besides those I have mentioned. It still holds a 

170 valuable part of France, though with slowly relaxing 
grasp, and practically the whole of Belgium. Its armies 
press close upon Russia and overrun Poland at their will. 
It cannot go further; it dare not go back. It wishes to 
close its bargain before it is too late and it has little left 

175 to offer for the pound of flesh it will demand. 

The military masters under whom Germany is bleed- 
ing see very clearly to what point Fate has brought them. 
If they fall back or are forced back an inch, their power 
both abroad and at home will fall to pieces like a house 

180 of cards. If is their power, at home they are thinking 
about now more than their power abroad. It is that 
power which is trembling under their very feet; and deep 
fear has entered their hearts. They have but one chance 
to perpetuate their military power or even their control- 

185 ling political influence. If they can secure peace now 
with the immense advantages still in their hands which 
they ha.ve up to this point apparently gained, they will 
have justified themselves before the German people; 
they will have gained by force what they promised to 

190 gain by it: an immense expansion of German power, an 



FLAG DAY ADDRESS 49 

immense enlargement of German industrial and com- 
mercial opportunities. Their prestige will be secure, 
and with their prestige their political power. If they 
fail, their people will thrust them aside; a government 
accountable to the people themselves will be set up in 195 
Germany as it has been in England, in the United States, 
in France, and in all the great countries of the modern 
time except Germany. If they succeed, they are safe, 
and Germany and the world are undone; if they fail, 
Germany is saved and the world will be at peace. If 200 
they succeed, America will fall within the menace. We 
and all the rest of the world must remain armed, as they 
will remain, and must make ready for the next step in 
their aggression; if they fail, the world may unite for 
peace and Germany may be of the union. 205 

Do you not now understand the new intrigue, the 
intrigue for peace, and why the masters of Germany do 
not hesitate to use any agency that promises to effect their 
purpose, the deceit of the nations? Their present partic- 
ular aim is to deceive all those w^io throughout the world 210 
stand for the rights of peoples and the self-government 
of nations; for they see what immense strength the 
forces of justice and of liberalism are gathering out of 
this war. They are employing liberals in their enter- 
prise. They are using men, in Germany and without, 215 
as their spokesmen whom they have hitherto despised 
and oppressed, using them for their own destruction — 
Socialists, the leaders of labor, the thinkers they have 
hitherto sought to silence. Let them once succeed, and 
these men, now their tools, will be ground to powder 220 
beneath the weight of the great military empire they 
will have set up ; the revolutionists in Russia will be cut 
off from all succor or cooperation in western Europe and 
a counter-revolution fostered and supported; Germany 



50 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

225 herself will lose her chance of freedom; and all Europe 
will arm for the next, the final, struggle. 

The sinister intrigue is being no less actively conducted 
in this country than in Russia and in every country in 
Europe to which the agents and dupes of the Imperial 

230 German Government can get access. That Government 
has many spokesmen here, in places high and low. They 
have learned discretion. They keep within the law. It 
is opinion they utter now, not sedition. They proclaim 
the liberal purposes of their masters ; declare this a foreign 

235 war which can touch America with no danger to either 
her lands or her institutions; set England at the center 
of the stage and talk of her ambition to assert economic 
dominion throughout the world; appeal to our ancient 
tradition of isolation in the politics of the nations; and 

240 seek to undermine the Government with false professions 
of loyalty to its principles. 

But they will make no headway. The false betray 
themselves always in every accent. It is only friends and 
partisans of the German Government whom we have 

245 already identified who utter these thinly disguised dis- 
loyalties. The facts are patent to all the world, and 
nowhere are they more plainly seen than in the United 
States, where we are accustomed to deal with facts and 
not with sophistries; and the great fact that stands 

250 out above all the rest is that this is a People's War, a 
war for freedom and justice and self-government amongst 
all the nations of the world, a war to make the world safe 
for the peoples who live upon it and have made it their 
own, the German people themselves included; and that 

255 with us rests the choice to break through all these hypoc- 
risies and patent cheats and masks of brute force and help 
set the world free, or else stand aside and let it be domi- 
nated a long age through by sheer weight of arms and 



PROGRAM OF THE WORLD'S PEACE 51 

the arbitrary choices of self-constituted masters, by the 
nation which can maintain the biggest armies and the 260 
most irresistible armaments — a power to which the world 
has afforded no parallel and in the face of which political 
freedom must wither and perish. 

For us there is but one choice. We have made it. 
Woe be to the man or group of men that seeks to stand 265 
in our way in this day of high resolution when every 
principle we hold dearest is to be vindicated and made 
secure for the salvation of the nations. We are ready 
to plead at the bar of history, and our flag shall wear a 
new luster. Once more we shall make good with our lives 270 
and fortunes the great faith to which we were born, and 
a new glory shall shine in the face of our people. 

PROGRAM OP THE WORLD'S PEACE 

WOODROW WILSON 

[This passage stating the famous "fourteen points" as a basis for 
peace is part of an address before Congress delivered on January 8, 
19 1 8. It was, as we can now clearly see, one of the most important 
diplomatic moves of the entire war. When Germany signed the 
drastic terms of an armistice on the morning of November 11, 1918, 
it did so having fully acknowledged a wilhngness to accept President 
Wilson's "fourteen points." Two modifications had been made by 
the Allies. They reserved freedom in the interpretation of the 
second point because of the different senses in which ' ' absolute free- 
dom of navigation" has been used. The tenth point was no longer 
to apply because the Czecho-Slovaks, one of the peoples of Austria- 
Hungary, had in the meantime declared their independence and had 
been recognized by the allied nations as an independent state.] 

We entered this war because violations of right had 
occurred which touched us to the quick and made the 
life of our own people impossible unless they were cor- 
rected and the world secured once for all against their 
recurrence. What we demand in this war, therefore, is 5 
nothing peculiar to ourselves. It is that the world be 
made fit and safe to live in; and particularly that it be 



5r THE WORLD AXD DEMOCRACY 

made safe for every peace-loving nation which. Uke our 
own. wishes to live its own life, detennine its own insti- 
tutions, be assured of justice and fair dealing by the other 
peoples of the world as against force and seltish aggression. 
All the peoples of the world are, in ettect. partners in 
this interest, and for our o\^^l part we see very clearly 
that unless justice be done to others it will not be done 
to us. The program of the world's peace, therefore, is 
our program; and that program, the only possible pro- 
gram, as we see it, is this: 

I. Open covenants of peace, openly arrived at; 
after which there shall be no private international 
understandings of any kind, but diplomacy shall 
proceed always frankly and in the public view. 

II. Absolute freedom of navigation upon the 
seas, outside territorial waters, alike in peace and in 
war. except as the seas may be closed in wh.ole or in 
part by international action for the enforcement 
of international covenants. 

III. The removal, so far as possible, of all eco- 
nomic bamers and the establishment of an equality 
of trade conditions among all the nations con- 
senting to the peace and associating themselves 
for its m.aintenance. 

IV. Adequate guaranties given and taken that 
national armaments will be reduced to the lowest 
point consistent with domestic safety. 

V. A free, open-minded, and absolutely impartial 
adjustment of all colonial claims, based upon a 
strict obser^'ance of the principle that in deter- 
mining all such questions of sovereignty the inter- 
ests of the populations concerned must have equal 
weight with the equitable claims of the Govern- 
ment whose title is to be determined. 



PROGRAM OF THE WORLD'S PEACE 53 

VI . The evacuation of all Russian territory, and 
such a settlement of all questions affecting Russia 
as will secure the best and freest cooperation of the 
other nations of the world in obtaining for her 
an unhampered and unembarrassed opportunity 
for the independent determination of her own 
political development and national policy, and 
assure her of a sincere welcome ifito the society of 
free nations under institutions of her own choos- 
ing; and, more than a welcome, assistance also of 
every kind that she may need and may herself 
desire. The treatment accorded Russia by her 
sister nations in the months to come will be the 
acid test of their good will, of their comprehension 
of her needs as distinguished from their own 
interests, and of their intelligent and unselfish 
sympathy. 

VII. Belgitun, the whole world will agree, 
must be evacuated and restored without any 
attempt to limit the sovereignty which she enjoys 
in common with all other free nations. No other 
single act will serve as this will serve to restore con- 
fidence amxong the nations in the laws which they 
have themselves set and determined for the govern- 
ment of their relations with one another. Without 
this healing act the whole structure and validity of 
international law is forever impaired. 

VIII. All French territory should be freed and 
the invaded portions restored; and the wrong done 
to France byj^russia in 187 1 in the matter of Alsace- 
Lorraine, which has unsettled the peace of the world 
for nearly fifty years, should be righted, in order 
that peace may once more be made secure in the 
interest of all. 



54 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

IX. A readjustment of the frontiers of Italy- 
should be effected along clearly recognizable lines 
of nationality. 

X. The peoples of Austria-Hungary, whose 
place among the nations we wish to see safeguarded 
and assured, should be accorded the freest oppor- 
tunity of autonomous development. 

XI. Rumania, Serbia, and Montenegro should 
be evacuated; occupied territories restored; Serbia 
accorded free and seciu'e access to the sea ; and the 
relations of the several Balkan States to one 
another determined by friendly counsel along 
historically established lines of allegiance and 
nationality; and international guaranties of the 
political and economic independence and territorial 
integrity of the several Balkan States should be 
entered into. 

XII. The Turkish portions of the present 
Ottoman Empire should be assured a secure sov- 
ereignty, but the other nationalities which are now 
under Turkish rule should be assured an undoubted 
security of life and an absolutely unmolested 
opportunity of autonomous development, and the 
Dardanelles should be permanently opened as a 
free passage to the ships and commerce of all 
nations under international guaranties. 

XIII. An independent Polish State should be 
erected which should include the territories 
inhabited by indisputably Polish populations, 
which should be assured a free and secure access 
to the sea, and whose political and economic 
independence and territorial integrity • should be 
guaranteed by international covenant. 



PROGRAM OF THE WORLD'S PEACE 55 

XIV. A general association of nations must 
be formed, under specific covenants, for the pur- no 
pose of affording mutual guaranties of political 
independence and territorial integrity to great 
and small States alike. 

In regard to these essential rectifications of wrong 
and assertions of right we feel ourselves to be intimate 115 
partners of all the Governments and peoples associated 
together against the imperialists. We cannot be sepa- 
rated in interest or divided in purpose. We stand 
together until the end. 

For such arrangements and covenants we are willing 120 
to fight, and to continue to fight, until they are achieved; 
but only because we wish the right to prevail and desire 
a just and stable peace, such as can be secured only by 
removing the chief provocations to war, which this pro- 
gram does remove. We have no jealousy of German 123 
greatness, and there is nothing in this program that 
impairs it. We grudge her no achievement or distinc- 
tion of learning or of specific enterprise, such as have 
made her record very bright and very enviable. We 
do not wish to injure her or to block in any way her 130 
legitimate influence or power. We do not wish to fight 
her either with arms or with hostile arrangements of trade, 
if she is willing to associate herself with us and the other 
peace-loving nations of the world in covenants of justice 
and law and fair dealing. We wish her only to accept a 135 
place of equality among the peoples of the world — the 
new world in which we now live — instead of a place of 
mastery. 

Neither do we presume to suggest to her any altera- 
tion or modification of her institutions. But it is neces- ho 
sary, we must frankly say, and necessary as a preliminary 



56 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

to any intelligent dealings with her on our part, that we 
should know whom her spokesmen speak for when they 
speak to us, whether for the Reichstag majority or for the 

145 military party and the men whose creed is imperial 
domination. 

We have spoken now, surely, in terms too concrete to 
admit of any further doubt or question. An evident 
principle runs through the v/hole program I have out- 

150 lined. It is the principle of justice to all peoples and 
nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of 
liberty and safety with one another, whether they be 
strong or weak. Unless this principle be made its 
foundation, no part of the structure of international 

155 justice can stand. The people of the United States 
could act upon no other principle; and to the vindication 
of this principle they are ready to devote their lives, their 
honor, and everything that they possess. The moral 
climax of this the culminating and final war for human 

160 liberty has come, and they are ready to put their own 
strength, their own highest purpose, their own integrity 
and devotion, to the test. 



RIGHTEOUS AND TRIUMPHANT FORCE 

WOODROW WILSON 

[This selection is the main portion of an address delivered at 
Baltimore, April 6, 191 8, on the opening of the Third Liberty Loan 
campaign. Between the date of the statement of the fourteen 
peace terms and the date of this address, Germany had taken 
advantage of the weakness of the Russian people following their 
successful revolution to impose upon them the humiliating terms 
of the Brest- Litovsk Treaty. For the moment Germany was in the 
ascendant and was sending forth blustering threats that the nations 
that longer stood in her way might judge from Russia's case what 
would befall them. President Wilson gives America's answer in 
this speech. The whole nation was thrilled by its spirit, feeling 
that there was, indeed, "but one response possible for us: Force, 
force to the utmost, force without stint or limit, the righteous and 



RIGHTEOUS AND TRIUMPHANT FORCE 57 

triumphant force which shall make right the law of the world and 
cast every selfish dominion down in the dust. " It is very signifi- 
cant in the light of this speech that one of the articles of the armis- 
tice that closed the fighting was an agreement by Germany 
immediately to abandon the Brest-Litovsk Treaty.] 

Fellow Citizens: 

This is the anniversary of our acceptance of Germany's 
challenge to fight for our right to live and be free, and 
for the sacred rights of freemen everywhere. The nation 
is awake. There is no need to call to it. We know what 
the war must cost, our utmost sacrifice, the lives of our 
fittest men, and, if need be, all that we possess. 

The reasons for this great war, the reason why it had 
to come, the need to fight it through, and the issues 
that hang upon its outcome are more clearly disclosed 
now than ever before. The man who knows least can 
now see plainly how the cause of justice stands. Men 
in America may be more sure than they ever were before 
that the cause is their own, and that, if it should be 
lost, their own great nation's place and mission in the 
world would be lost with it. 

I should be ashamed in the presence of affairs so grave, 
so fraught with the destinies of mankind throughout all 
the world, to speak with truculence, to use the weak 
language of hatred or vindictive purpose. We must 
judge as we would be judged. I have sought to learn 
the objects Germany has in this war from the mouths 
of her own spokesmen, and to deal as frankly with them 
as I wished them to deal with me. I have laid bare 
our own ideals, our own purposes, without reserve or 
doubtful phrase, and have asked them to say as plainly 
what it is that they seek. 

We have ourselves proposed no injustice, no aggres- 
sion. We are ready, whenever the final reckoning is 
made, to be just to the German people, deal fairly with 



58 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

the German power, as w-ith all others. There caii be 
no difference between peoples in the final judgment, if 
it is indeed to be a righteous judgment. To propose 
anx-thing but justice, even-handed and dispassionate 
justice, to Germany at any time, whatever the outcome 
of the war. would be to renounce and dishonor our o^m 
cause, for we ask nothing that we are not willing to 
accord. 

It Ijas been with this thought that I have sought to 
learn from those who spoke for Germany whether it was 
justice or dominion and the execution of their own will 
upon the other nations of the world that the German 
leaders were seeking. They have answered — ansA;\'ered 
in unmistakable terms. They have avowed that it was 
not justice, but dominion and the unhindered execution 
of their 0"wn w-ill. The avowal has not come from 
Germany's statesmen. It has came from her military- 
leaders, who are her real rulers. Her statesmen have 
said that they wished peace, and were ready to discuss 
its terms whenever their opponents were willing to 
sit down at the conference table with them. Her 
present. Chancellor has said — in indelinite and uncertain 
terms, indeed, and in phrases that often seem to deny 
their own meaning, but with as much plainness as he 
thought prudent — that he believed that peace should 
be based upon the principles which we had declared 
would be our own in the final settlement. 

At Brest-Litovsk her ci\-ilian delegates spoke in 
similar terms; professed their desire to conclude a fair 
peace and accord to the peoples with whose forumes they 
were dealing the right to choose their own allegiances. 
But action accompanied and followed the profession. 
Their military masters, the men who act for Germany 
and exhibit her purpose in execution, proclaimed a ver>- 



RIGHTEOUS AND TRIUMPHANT FORCE 59 

different conclusion. We cannot mistake what they 
have done — in Russia, in Finland, in the Ukraine, in 
Rumania. The real test of their justice and fair play 
has come. From this we may judge the rest. 

They are enjoying in Russia a cheap triumph in which 
no brave or gallant nation can long take pride. A great 
people, helpless by their own act, lies for the time at 
their mercy. Their fair professions are forgotten. They 
nowhere set up justice, but everywhere impose their power 
and exploit everything for their own use and aggran- 
dizement, and the peoples of conquered provinces are 
invited to be free under their dominion! 

Are we not justified in believing that they would do 
the same things at their western front if they were not 
there face to face with armies whom even their countless 
divisions cannot overcome? If, when they have felt 
their check to be final, they should propose favorable 
and equitable terms with regard to Belgium and France 
and Italy, could they blame us if we concluded that they 
did so only to assure themselves of a free hand in Russia 
and the East? 

Their purpose is, undoubtedly, to make all the Slavic 
peoples, all the free and ambitious nations of the Baltic 
Peninsula, all the lands that Turkey has dominated and 
misruled, subject to their will and ambition, and build 
upon that dominion an empire of force upon which they 
fancy that they can then erect an empire of gain and 
commercial supremacy — an empire as hostile to the 
Americas as to the Europe which it will overawe — an 
empire which will ultimately master Persia, India, and 
the peoples of the Far East. 

In such a program our ideals, the ideals of justice and 
humanity and liberty, the principle of the free self- 
determination of nations, upon which all the modern 



6o THE WORLD AXD DEMOCRACY 

world insists, can play no part. They are rejected for the 

100 ideals of power, for the principle that the strong must 
V rule the w^eak, that trade must follow the flag whether 
those to whom it is taken welcome it or not, that the 
peoples of the world are to be made subject to the pat- 
ronage and overlordship of those who have the power to 

105 enforce it. 

That program once earned out, America and all who 
care or dare to stand with her must arm and prepare 
themselves to contest the mastery of the world — a 
mastery in which the rights of common men, the rights 

no of women and of all who are weak, must for the time 
being be trodden underfoot and disregarded and the old, 
age-long struggle for freedom and right begin again at 
its beginning. Everything that America has lived for 
and loved and grown great to vindicate and bring to 

115 a glorious realization will have fallen in utter niin and 
the gates of mercy once more pitilessly shut upon man- 
kind ! 

The thing is preposterous and impossible; and yet is 
not that what the whole course and action of the German 

120 armies has meant wjierever they have moved? I do 
not wish, even in this moment of utter disillusionment, 
to judge harshly or unrighteously. I judge only what 
the German arms ha^'e accomplished with unpitying 
thoroughness throughout ever\' fair region the}^ have 

125 touched. 

What, then, are we to do? For myself, I am ready, 
ready still, ready even now, to discuss a fair and just and 
honest peace at any time that it is sincerely purposed — 
a peace in which the strong and the weak shall fare alike. 

130 But the answer, when I proposed such a peace, came 
from the German commanders in Russia, and I cannot 
mistake the meaning of the answer. 



THE MOUNT VERNON ADDRESS 6i 

I accept the challenge. I know that you accept it. 
All the world shall know that you accept it. It shall 
appear in the utter sacrifice and self-forgetfulness with 135 
which we shall give all that we love and all that we have 
to redeem the world and make it fit for free men like 
ourselves to live in. This now is the meaning of all that 
we do. Let everything that we say, my fellow country- 
men, everything that we henceforth plan and accomplish, m 
ring true to this response till the majesty and might of 
our concerted power shall fill the thought and utterly 
defeat the force of those who flout and misprize what we 
honor and hold dear. 

Germany has once more said that force, and force no 
alone, shall decide whether justice and peace shall reign 
in the affairs of men, whether right as America conceives it 
or dominion as she conceives it shall determine the des- 
tinies of mankind. There is, therefore, but one response 
possible from us: Force, force to the utmost, force with- 150 
out stint or limit, the righteous and triumphant force 
which shall make right the law of the world and cast 
every selfish dominion down in the dust. 

THE MOUNT VERNON ADDRESS 

WOODROW WILSON 

[On the Fourth of July, 1918, the President of the United States, 
members of the Cabinet and of the diplomatic corps, representa- 
tives of foreign-born citizens, and a great concourse of other officials 
and civilians made a pious pilgrimage to the tomb of Washington 
at Mount Vernon. The ceremonies were unusually impressive. 
President Wilson delivered the following brief address in which he 
stated the four far-reaching principles which the free nations asso- 
ciated together in war must insist upon as a basis of a righteous and 
durable peace.] 

I am happy to draw apart with you to this quiet place 
of old counsel in order to speak a little of the meaning of 
this day of our nation's independence. The place seems 



62 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

very still and remote. It is as serene and untouched by 
the hurry of the world as it was in those great days long 
ago when General Washington was here and held leisurely 
conference with the men who were to be associated with 
him in the creation of a nation. From these gentle slopes 
they looked out upon the world and saw it whole, saw it 
with the light of the future upon it, saw it with modern 
eyes that turned away from a past which men of liberated 
spirits could no longer endure. It is for that reason that 
we cannot feel, even here, in the immediate presence of 
this sacred tomb, that this is a place of death. It was a 
place of achievement. A great promise that was meant 
for all mankind was here given plan and reality. The 
associations by which we are here surrounded are the 
inspiriting associations of that noble death which is only 
a glorious consummation. From this green hillside we 
also ought to be able to see with comprehending eyes the 
world that lies around us and conceive anew the purpose 
that must set men free. 

It is significant — significant of their own character and 
purpose and of the influences they were setting afoot — 
that Washington and his associates, like the Barons at 
Runnymede, spoke and acted, not for a class, but for a 
people. It has been left for us to see to it that it shall be 
understood that they spoke and acted, not for a single 
people only, but for all mankind. They were thinking, 
not of themselves and of the material interests which 
centered in the little groups of landholders and mer- 
chants and men of affairs with whom they were accus- 
tomed to act, in Virginia and the colonies to the north and 
south of her, but of a people which wished to be done 
with classes and special interests and the authority of 
men whom they had not themselves chosen to rule over 
them. They entertained no private purpose, desired no 



i 



THE MOUNT VERNON ADDRESS 63 

peculiar privilege. They were consciously planning that 
men of every class should be free and America a place to 
which men out of every nation might resort who wished 
to share with them the rights and privileges of free men. 
And we take our cue from them — do we not? We 
intend what they intended. We here in America believe 
our participation in this present war to be only the fruit- 
age of what they planted. Our case differs from theirs 
only in this, that it is our inestimable privilege to concert 
with men out of every nation who shall make not only 
the liberties of America secure but the liberties of every 
other people as well. We are happy in the thought that 
we are permitted to do what they would have done had they 
been in our place. There must now be settled, once for 
all, what was settled for America in the great age upon 
whose inspiration we draw to-day. This is surely a fitting 
place from which calmly to look out upon our task, that 
we may fortify our spirits for its accomplishment. And 
this is the appropriate place from which to avow, alike 
to the friends who look on and to the friends with whom 
we have the happiness to be associated in action, the 
faith and purpose with which we act. 

This, then, is our conception of the great struggle in 
which we are engaged. The plot is written plain upon 
every scene and every act of the supreme tragedy. On 
the one hand stand the peoples of the world — not only 
the peoples actually engaged, but many others, also, who 
suffer under mastery but cannot act; peoples of many 
races and in every part of the world — the people of 
stricken Russia still, among the rest, though they are for 
the moment unorganized and helpless. Opposed to them, 
masters of many armies, stand an isolated, friendless 
group of Governments, who speak no common purpose, 
but only selfish ambitions of their own, by which none 

6 



64 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

can profit but themselves, and whose peoples are fuel in 
their hands; Governments which fear their people, and yet 
are for the time being sovereign lords, making every 

75 choice for them and disposing of their lives and fortunes 
as they will, as well as of the lives and fortunes of, every 
people who fall under their power — Governments 
clothed with the strange trappings and the primitive 
authority of an age that is altogether alien and hostile to 

so our own. The Past and the Present are in deadly grapple, 
and the peoples of the world are being done to death 
between them. 

There can be but one issue. The settlement must be 
final. There can be no compromise. No halfway 

85 decision would be tolerable. No halfway decision is 
conceivable. These are the ends for which the associated 
peoples of the world are fighting and which must be con- 
ceded them before there can be peace: 

I. The destruction of every arbitrary power 
90 anywhere that can separately, secretly, and of its 

single choice disturb the peace of the world; or, 
if it cannot be presently destro3^ed, at the least its 
reduction to virtual impotence. 

II. The settlement of every question, whether 
95 of territory, of sovereignty, of economic arrange- 
ment, or of political relationship, upon the basis of 
the free acceptance of that settlement by the people 
immediately concerned, and not upon the basis of 
the material interest or advantage of any other 

100 nation or people which may desire a different 
settlement for the sake of its own exterior influence 
or mastery. 

III. The consent of all nations to be governed 
in their conduct toward each other by the same 

105 principles of honor and of respect for the common 



THE MOUNT VERNON ADDRESS 65 

law of civilized society that govern the individual 
citizens of all modern states in their relations with 
one another ; to the end that all promises and cove- 
nants may be .sacredly obser\^ed, no private plots or 
conspiracies hatched, no selfish injuries wrought no 
with impunit3^ and a mutual trust established 
upon the handsome foundation of a mutual respect 
for right. 

IV. The establishment of an organization of 
peace which shall make it certain that the com- 115 
bined power of free nations will check every 
invasion of right and serve to make peace and 
justice the more secure by affording a definite 
tribunal of opinion to which all must submit and 
by which every international readjustment that 120 
cannot be amicably agreed upon by the peoples 
directly concerned shall be sanctioned. 
These great objects can be put into a single sentence. 
What we seek is the reign of law, based upon the consent 
of the governed and sustained by the organized opinion 125 
of mankind. 

These great ends cannot be achieved by debating and 
seeking to reconcile and accommodate what statesmen 
may wish with their projects for balances of power and 
of national opportunity. They can be realized only by 130 
the determination of what the thinking peoples of the 
world desire, with their longing hope for justice and for 
social freedom and- opportunity. 

I can fancy that the air of this place carries the accents 
of such principles with a peculiar kindness. Here were 135 
started forces which the great nation against which they 
were primarily directed at first regarded as a revolt 
against its rightful authority, but which it has long since 
seen to have been a step in the liberation of its own people 



66 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

140 as well as of the people of the United States ; and I stand 
here now to speak — speak proudly and with confident 
hope — of the spread of this revolt, this liberation, to 
the great stage of the world itself! The blinded rulers 
of Prussia have roused forces they know little of — forces 

145 which, once roused, can never be crushed to earth again; 
for they have at their heart an inspiration and a pur- 
pose which are deathless and of the very stuff of triumph ! 

THE ISSUES OF THE WAR 

WOODROW WILSON 

[This address was delivered at the Metropohtan Opera House, 
New York, September 27, 191 8, on the occasion of the opening of 
the campaign for the Fourth Liberty Loan. One of the ideals that 
President Wilson has often expressed is that of finding a method 
which will make it impossible for any nation to plunge the world 
into a terrible war or to impose unreasonably its will upon a weaker 
neighbor. The schemes that have been proposed from various 
sources for accomplishing this object have come to be known under 
the general name of a "League of Nations." It would be a sort 
of international union, and would, according to the ideas of its 
advocates, do away with militarism and provide methods of judi- 
cially settling all sorts of misunderstandings among the nations. 
Undoubtedly the attempt to form such a League of Nations will 
occupy a prominent place in the proceedings of the Peace Council. 
President Wilson points out in detail what he considers some of the 
practical items in the working program of this possible league.] 

At every turn of the war, we gain a fresh consciousness 
of what we mean to accomplish by it. When our hope and 
expectation are most excited, we think more definitely than 
before of the issues that hang upon it and of the purposes 

5 which must be realized by means of it. For it has 
positive and well-defined purposes which we did not 
detemiine, and which we cannot alter. No statesman or 
assembly created them; no statesman or assembly can 
alter them. They have arisen out of the very nature and 

10 circumstances of the war. The most that statesmen or 
assemblies can do is to carry them out or be false to them. 



THE LSSUES OF THE WAR 67 

They were, perhaps, not clear at the outset; but the}' are 
clear now. The war has lasted long enough to draw the 
whole world into it. The common will of mankind has 
been substituted for the particular purposes of individu al 
states. Individual statesmen may have started the con- 
flict, but neither they nor their opponents can stop it as 
they please. It has become a peoples' war, and peoples 
of all sorts and races, of every degree of power and variety 
of fortune, are involved in its sweeping processes of change 
and settlement. We came into it when its character had 
become fully defined and it was plain that no nation 
could stand apart or be indifferent to its outcome. Its 
challenge drove to the heart of everything we cared for 
and lived for. The voice of the war had become clear 
and gripped our hearts. Our brothers from many lands, 
as well as our own murdered dead under the sea, were 
calling to us, and we responded, fiercely and of course. 

The air was clear about us. We saw things in their 
full, convincing proportions as they were; and we have 
seen them with steady eyes and unchanging comprehen- 
sion ever since. We accepted the issues of the war as 
facts, not as any group of men either here or elsewhere 
had defined them, and we can accept no outcome v/hich 
does not squarely meet and settle them. Those issues 
are these: 

Shall the military power of any nation or group of 
nations be suffered to determine the fortunes of peoples 
over whom they have no right to rule except the rule of 
force ? 

Shall strong nations be free to wrong weak nations and 
make them subject to their purpose and interest? 

Shall peoples be ruled and dominated, even in their 
own internal affairs, by arbitrary and irresponsible force, 
or bv their own will and choice ? 



68 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Shall there be a common standard of right and pri\'ilege 
for all peoples and nations, or shall the strong do as they 
will and the weak suffer without redress? 

Shall the assertion of right be haphazard and by casual 
alliance, or shall there be a common concert to oblige 
the observance of common rights? 

No man, no group of men, chose these to be the issues 
of the struggle. They are the issues of it; and they must 
be settled — by no arrangement or compromise or adjust- 
ment of interests, but definitely and once for all and with 
a full and unequivocal acceptance of the principle that 
the interest of the weakest is as sacred as the interest of 
the strongest. 

This is what we mean when we speak of a permanent 
peace, if we speak sincerely, intelligently, and with a real 
knowledge and comprehension of the matter we deal 
with. 

We are all agreed that there can be no peace obtained 
by an\' kind of bargain or compromise with the govern- 
ments of the Central Empires, because we have dealt 
with them already and have seen them deal with other 
Governments that were parties to this sti*uggle, at Brest- 
Litovsk and Bucharest. They observe no covenants, 
accept no law but force and their own interest. We 
cannot "come to terms" with them. They have made 
it impossible. The German people must, by this time, be 
fully aware that we cannot accept the word of those who 
forced this war upon us. We do not think the same 
thoughts or speak the same language of agreement. 

It is of capital iniportance that we should also be 
explicitly agreed that no peace shall be obtained by any 
kind of compromise or abatement of the principles we 
have avowed as the principles for which we are fighting. 
There should exist no doubt about it. I am, therefore, 



THE ISSUES OF THE WAR 69 

going to take the liberty of speaking with the utmost so 
frankness about the practical implications that are 
involved in it. 

If it be in deed and in truth the common object of the 
Governments associated against Germany, and of the 
nations whom they govern, as I believe it to be, to achieve. 85- 
by the coming settlements, a secure and lasting peace, it 
will be necessary that all who sit down at the peace table 
shall come ready and willing to pay the price, the only 
price, that will procure it; and ready and willing, also, to 
create, in some virile fashion, the only instrumentality by 90- 
which it can be made certain that the agreements of the 
peace will be honored and fulfilled. 

That price is impartial justice in every item of the 
settlement, no matter whose interest is crossed; and not 
only impartial justice, but also the satisfaction of the 95- 
several peoples whose fortunes are dealt with. That 
indispensable instrumentality is a League of Nations 
formed under covenants that will be efficacious. With- 
out such an instrumentality, by which the peace of the 
world can be guaranteed, peace will rest, in part, upon loo 
the word of outlaws and only upon that word. For 
Germany will have to redeem her character, not by what 
happens at the peace table, but by what follows. 

And, as I see it, the constitution of that League of 
Nations and the clear definition of its objects must be a 105 
part, is in a sense the most essential part, of the peace settle- 
ment itself. It cannot be formed now. If formed now, 
it would be merely a new alliance confined to the nations 
associated against a common enemy. It is not likely 
that it could be formed after the settlement. It is neces- no 
sary to guarantee the peace; and the peace cannot be 
guaranteed as an afterthought. The reason, to speak in 
plain terms again, why it must be guaranteed is that there 



70 THE WORLD AXD DEMOCRACY 

will be parties to the peace whose promises have proved 

115 untinistworthy, and means must be found in connection 
with the peace settlement itself to remove that source of 
insecurity. It would be folly to leave the guaranty to 
the subsequent voluntary action of the Governments we 
have seen destroy Russia and decei\'e Rimiania. 

120 But these general temis do not disclose the whole 
matter. Some details are needed to make them sound less 
like a thesis and more like a practical program. These, 
then, are some of the particulars, and I state them \\'ith 
the greater confidence because I can state them authori- 

1:5 tatively as representing this Government's interpreta- 
tion of its o^Ti dut}^ w4th regard to peace : 

First, the impartial justice meted out must involve no 
discrimination between those to whom we wish to be just 
and those to whom we do not wish to be just. It must be 

130 a justice that plays no favorites and knows no standard 
but the equal rights of the several peoples concerned. 

Second, no special or separate interest of any single 
nation or any group of nations can be made the basis of 
any part of the settlement which is not consistent with 

135 the common interest of all. 

Third, there can be no leagues or alliances or special 
covenants and understandings within the general and 
common family of the League of Nations. 

Fourth, and more specifically, there can be no special, 

140 selfish economic combinations within the league and no em- 
ployment of any form of economic boycott or exclusion 
except as the power of economic penalty by exclusion from 
the markets of the world may be vested in the League 
of Nations itself as a means of discipline and control. 

145 Fifth, all international agreements and treaties of 
every kind must be made known in their entirety to the 
rest of the world. 



THE ISSUES OF THE WAR 71 

Special alliances and economic rivalries and hostilities 
have been the prolific source, in the modern world, of the 
plans and passions that produce war. It would be an 150 
insincere as well as an insecure peace that did not exclude 
them in definite and binding terms. 

The confidence with which I venture to speak for our 
people in these matters does not spring from our tradi- 
tions, merely, and the well-known principles of inter- 155 
national action which we have always professed and 
followed. In the same sentence in which I say that the 
United States will enter into no special arrangements 
or understandings with particular nations, let me say 
also that the United States is prepared to assume its 160 
full share of responsibility for the maintenance of the 
common covenants and understandings upon which 
peace must henceforth rest. We still read Washington's 
immortal warning against "entangHng alliances," with 
full comprehension and an answering purpose. But only i65 
special and limited alliances entangle; and we recognize 
and accept the duty of a new day in which we are per- 
mitted to hope for a general alliance which will avoid 
entanglements and clear the air of the world for common 
understandings and the maintenance of common rights. 170 

I have made this analysis of the international situation 
which the war has created, not, of course, because I 
doubted whether the leaders of the great nations and 
peoples with whom we are associated were of the same 
mind and entertained a like purpose, but because the 175 
air, every now and again, gets darkened by mists and 
groundless doubtings and mischievous perversions of 
counsel, and it is necessary, once and again, to sweep all 
tne irresponsible talk about peace intrigues and weaken- 
ing morale and doubtful purpose on the part of those in iso 
authority utterly, and if need be unceremoniously, aside, 



72 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

and say things in the plainest words that can be found, 
even when it is only to say over again what has been said 
before, quite as plainly, if in less unvarnished terms. 

185 As I have said, neither I nor any other man in govern- 
mental authority created or gave form to the issues of 
this war. I have simply responded to them with such 
vision as I could command. But I have responded gladly 
and with a resolution that has grown warmer and more 

190 confident as the issues have grown clearer and clearer. 
It is now plain that they are issues which no man can 
pervert unless it be wilfully. I am bound to fight for 
them, and happy to fight for them, as time and circum- 
stances have revealed them to me as to all the world. 

195 Our enthusiasm for them grows more and more irresist- 
ible as they stand out in more and more vivid and 
unmistakable outline. 

And the forces that fight for them draw into closer and 
closer array, organize their millions into more and more 

200 unconquerable might, as they become more and more 
distinct to the thought and purpose of the peoples engaged. 
It is the peculiarity of this great war that while states- 
men have seemed to cast about for definitions of their 
purpose, and have sometimes seemed to shift their 

205 ground and their point of view, the thought of the mass 
of men, whom statesmen are supposed to instruct and 
lead, has grown more and more unclouded, more and 
more certain of what it is that they are fighting for. 
National purposes have fallen more and more into the 

210 background, and the common purpose of enlightened 
mankind has taken their place. The counsels of plain 
men have become, on all hands, more simple and straight- 
forward and more unified than the counsels of sophisti- 
cated men of affairs, who still retain the impression that 

215 they are playing a game of power and playing for high 



THE ISSUES OF THE WAR 73 

stakes. That is why I have said that this is a peoples' 
war, not a statesmen's. Statesmen must follow the 
clarified common thought or be broken. 

I took that to be the significance of the fact that 
assemblies and associations of many kinds made up of 220 
plain workaday people have demanded, almost every 
time they came together, and are still demanding that the 
leaders of their Governments declare to them plainly 
what it is, exactly what it is, that they were seeking in 
this war, and what they think the items of the final settle- 225 
ment should be. They are not yet satisfied with what they 
have been told. They still seem to fear that they are get- 
ting what they ask for only in statesmen's terms — only 
in the terms of territorial arrangements and divisions 
of power, and not in terms of broad- visioned justice and 230 
mercy and peace and the satisfaction of those deep-seated 
longings of oppressed and distracted men and women and 
enslaved peoples that seem to them the only things worth 
fighting a war for that engulfs the world. Perhaps states- 
men have not always recognized this changed aspect 235 
of the whole world of policy and action. Perhaps they 
have not always spoken in direct reply to the ques- 
tions asked because they did not know how searching 
these questions were and what sort of answers they 
demanded. 240 

But I, for one, am glad to attempt the answer again 
and again, in the hope that I may make it clearer and 
clearer that my one thought is to satisfy those who 
struggle in the ranks and are, perhaps above *all others, 
entitled to a reply whose meaning no one can have any 245 
excuse for misunderstanding, if he understands the lan- 
guage in which it is spoken or can get someone to trans- 
late it correctly into his own. And I believe that the 
leaders of the Governments with which we are associated 



74 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

250 will speak, as they have occasion as plainly as I have 
tried to speak. I hope that they will feel free to say 
whether they think that I am in any degree mistaken 
in my interpretation of the issues involved or in my pur- 
pose with regard to the means by which a satisfactory 

255 settlement of these issues may be obtained. Unity of 
purpose and of counsel are as imperatively necessary in 
this war as was unity of command in the battlefield; and 
with perfect unity of purpose and counsel will come 
assurance of complete victory. 

260 It can be had in no other way. " Peace drives" can be 
effectively neutralized and silenced only by showing that 
every victory of the nations associated against Germany 
brings the nations nearer the sort of peace which will 
bring security and reassurance to all peoples and make 

265 the recurrence of another such struggle of pitiless force and 
bloodshed forever impossible, and that nothing else can. 
Germany is constantly intimating the "terms" she will 
accept; and alwa^^s finds that the world does not want 
terms. It wishes the final triumph of justice and fair 

270 dealing. 

DEMOCRACY 

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL 

[James Russell Lowell was the American ambassador to Great 
Britain from 1 88o to 1 885. He played a great part in cultivating the 
good understanding between England and the United States which 
has been so important in recent years. He was always in demand 
as a speaker and always said the fitting thing at the right moment. 
In 1884 he delivered an address on "Democracy" at Birmingham, 
from which our extracts are taken. No longer ago than that it 
seemed necessary to defend the American ideal of democracy in 
England. The Civil War in our own country and the excesses of 
the Paris Commune in 1871 following the close of the war between 
France and Germany had made Europeans, especially Englishmen, 
skeptical about the practical success of democratic ideals. Lowell 
was particularly successful in making clear the attitude of mind 
which constitutes democracy.] 



DEMOCRACY 75 

Few people take the trouble of trying to find out what 
'democracy really is. Yet this would be a great help, for 
it is our lawless and uncertain thoughts, it is the indefinite- 
ness of our impressions, that fill darkness, whether mental 
or physical, with specters and hobgoblins. Democracy 
is nothing more than an experiment in government, more 
likely to succeed in a new soil, but likely to be tried in all 
soils, which must stand or fall on its own merits as others 
have done before it. For there is no trick of perpetual 
motion in politics any more than in mechanics. Presi- 
dent Lincoln defined democracy to be "the government 
of the people by the people for the people." This 
is a sufficiently compact statement of it as a political 
arrangement. Theodore Parker said that "Democracy 
meant not 'I'm as good as you are, ' but 'You're as good 
as I am.' " And this is the ethical conception of it, necessary 
as a complement of the other; a conception which, could 
it be made actual and practical, would easily solve all the 
riddles that the old sphinx of political and social economy 
who sits by the roadside has been proposing to mankind 
from the beginning, and which mankind have shown such 
a singular talent for answering wrongly. In this sense 
Christ was the first true democrat that ever breathed, 
as the old dramatist Dekker said he was the first true 
gentleman. The characters may be easily doubled, so 
strong is the likeness between them. A beautiful and 
profound parable of the Persian poet Jellaladeen tells us 
that "One knocked at the Beloved's door, and a voice 
asked from within 'Who is there?' and he answered 'It is 
L' Then the voice said, 'This house will not hold me 
and thee'; and the door was not opened. Then went 
the lover into the desert and fasted and prayed in soli- 
tude, and after a year he returned and knocked again at 
the door ; and again the voice asked ' Who is there ? ' and 



76 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

he said 'It is thyself; and the door was opened to him. " 
But that is idealism, you will say, and this is an only too 
practical world. I grant it; but I am one of those who 
believe that the real will never find an irremovable basis 
till it rests on the ideal. 

It used to be thought that a democracy was possible 
only in a small territory, and this is doubtless true of a 
democracy strictly defined, for in such all the citizens 
decide directly upon every question of public concern in a 
general assembly. An example still survives in the tiny 
Swiss canton of Appenzell. But this immediate inter- 
vention of the people in their own affairs is not of the 
essence of democracy; it is not necessary, nor indeed, in 
most cases, practicable. Democracies to which Mr. 
Lincoln's definition would fairly enough apply have 
existed, and now exist, in which, though the supreme 
authority reside in the people, yet they can act only 
indirectly on the national policy. This generation has 
seen a democracy with an imperial figurehead, and in all 
that have ever existed the body politic has never embraced 
all the inhabitants included within its territory, the right 
to share in the direction of affairs has been confined to 
citizens, and citizenship has been further restricted by 
various limitations, sometimes of property, sometimes of 
nativity, and always of age and sex. 

The framers of the American Constitution were far 
from wishing or intending to found a democracy in the 
strict sense of the word, though, as was inevitable, every 
expansion of the scheme of government they elaborated 
has been in a democratical direction. But this has been 
generally the slow result of growth, and not the sudden 
innovation of theory; in fact, they had a profound dis- 
belief in theory, and knew better than to commit the folly 



DEMOCRACY 77 

of breaking with the past. They were not seduced by 
the French fallacy that a new system of government 
could be ordered like a new suit of clothes. They would 
as soon have thought of ordering a new suit of flesh and 
skin. It is only on the roaring loom of time that the 
stuff is woven for such a vesture of their thought and 
experience as they were meditating. They recognized 
fully the value of tradition and habit as the great allies 
of permanence and stability. They all had that distaste 
for innovation which belonged to their race, and many 
of them a distrust of human nature derived from their 
creed. The day of sentiment was over, and no dithy ram- 
ble affirmations or fine-drawn analyses of the Rights of 
Man would serve their present turn. This was a practi- 
cal question, and they addressed themselves to it as men 
of knowledge and judgment should. Their problem was 
how to adapt English principles and precedents to the 
new conditions of American life, and they solved it with 
singular discretion. They put as many obstacles as 
they could contrive, not in the way of the people's will, 
but of their whim. With few exceptions they probably 
admitted the logic of the then accepted syllogism, — 
democracy, anarchy, despotism. But this fonnula was 
framed upon the experience of small cities shut up to 
stew within their narrow walls where the number of 
citizens made but an inconsiderable fraction of the inhab- 
itants, where every passion was reverberated from house 
to house and from man to man with gathering rumor till 
every impulse became gregarious and therefore incon- 
siderate, and every popular assembly needed but an 
infusion of eloquent sophistry to turn it into a mob, all 
the more dangerous because sanctified with the formality 
of law. 



78 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Fortunately their case was wholly different. They 
were to legislate for a widely scattered population and 
for States already practiced in the discipline of a partial 
independence. They had an unequaled opportunity and 

105 enormous advantages. The material they had to work 
upon was already democratical by instinct and habitude. 
It was tempered to their hands by more than a century's 
schooling in self-government. They had but to give per- 
manent and conservative form to a ductile mass. In 

110 giving impulse and direction to their new institutions, 
especially in supplying them with checks and balances, they 
had a great help and safeguard in their federal organiza- 
tion. The different, sometimes conflicting, interests and 
social systems of the several States made existence as a 

115 Union and coalescence into a nation conditional on a con- 
stant practice of moderation and compromise 

All free governriients, whatever their name, are in 
reality governments by public opinion, and it is on the 
quality of this public opinion that their prosperity depends. 

120 It is, therefore, their first duty to purify the element from 
which they draw the breath of life. With the growth of 
democracy grows also the fear, if not the danger, that 
this atmosphere may be corrupted with poisonous exhala- 
tions from lower and m.ore malarious levels, and the 

125 question of sanitation becomes more instant and pressing. 
Democracy in its best sense is merely the letting in of 
light and air. Lord Sherbrooke, with his usual epigram- 
matic terseness, bids you educate your future rulers. 
But would this alone be a sufficient safeguard? To 

130 educate the intelligence is to enlarge the horizon of its 
desires and wants. And it is well that this should be so. 
But the enterprise must go deeper and prepare the way 
for satisfying those desires and wants in so far as they 
are legitimate. 



THE PROBLEM OF DEMOCRACY 79 

THE PROBLEM OF DEMOCRACY 

FREDERIC C. MOREHOUSE 

[In this discussion the author turns aside from the many problems 
of democracy to set forth one problem that seems to him more vital 
than any other. It is an old objection to putting power in the hands 
of the people, that the people are not prepared to use it. The 
claim of greater efficiency has always been advanced for autocratic 
and tyrannical government. Mr. Morehouse takes the position 
that it is not a question of democracy vs. kingship, not a question 
of governmental form merely, but a question of educating the people 
until they can display the same efficiency in handling their own 
affairs that we associate with the efficiency of the so-called privi- 
leged or trained ruling classes.] 

We are not now thinking of the "problems" of democ- 
racy. There are many of them, and probably always 
will be. Much more fundamental is that which is in 
our thoughts for this consideration: the Problem of 
democracy. 

For we have learned much of that problem since our 
fathers essayed their experiment in democracy nearly a 
century and a half ago. We have learned that neither 
the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution of 
the United States exhausted the subject. We are learn- 
ing that we may well be a little reticent in promulgating 
our theories. Apart entirely from our own problems in 
the United States, democracy has so far failed in several 
of the republics south of us that the occupation of the 
United States has been required for their own protection 
quite as truly as for the protection of the rights of Ameri- 
cans and of foreigners; and, where American occupation 
has been impossible, such examples of misgovernment as 
Mexico and Venezuela show that republican forms of 
government do not necessarily imply good government. 
We see China and then Russia suddenly seize upon 
the forms and perhaps the ideal of democracy and then 
lapse into anarchy. Indeed, we look about among 



8o THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

ourselves and see the inequalities that undoubtedly prevail 

25 in the United States, and recognize that, a hundred and 
forty-two years after the Declaration of Independence 
was written, our democracy has not yet succeeded in 
giving equal chances to all our own people. Back of 
the manifold problems of the day lies the Problem of 

30 democracy. 

Democracy implies the composite ideals, the compos- 
ite attainments, of a whole people. Given an illiterate 
people, an ignoble democracy alone can be effected. Our 
fathers recognized this, and established the public school 

35 as the very foundation of democracy; but yet subsequent 
generations seem to have forgotten it, for the endowment 
of the whole Negro race with the ballot after the Civil 
War vv^ould have been impossible had this been recog- 
nized, and the failure of such Latin-American republics as 

40 have permitted their peoples to remain illiterate would 
have caused no disappointment. So, also, were this 
firmly recognized, we should not have held out to China 
and Russia the hope that they could safely build republics 
in their respective lands until they had first built up at 

45 least a semi-educated citizenr}^ At most an oligarchy — 
a government by the educated minority instead of by all 
the people — is the nearest approach to democracy that 
can be hoped for with any likelihood of obtaining reason- 
ably good government in a land in which the great bulk 

50 of the people are illiterate. The American people ought 
frankly to recognize this fact, which has been so thor- 
oughly demonstrated during the past century and a half, 
and, so, to guide unprepared nations to a gradual approach 
to democracy rather than to a sudden leap — which has 

^0 involved so many national catastrophes in our own day. 
Thus far, most people will probably agree with us, 



THE PROBLEM OF DEMOCRACY 8i 

though it does not accord with our old-time Fourth of 
July oratory. Happily, we are well past the spread- 
eagle phase of that oratory, nor do we longer enjoy 
pulling the lion's tail. Englishmen, on the other hand, 
at last appreciate why George Washington and his 
associates could not abide their German kings — and 
wonder that their own fathers did not revolt at the same 
time. Those kings, trained in the school of Frederick the 
Great (grandson of George I of England) , were as repellent 
to the spirit of America in the eighteenth century as their 
descendant of Potsdam is to the England of the twen- 
tieth century, and for very much the same reason. This 
war, therefore, is the vindication of the American Revolu- 
tion, and, just a little belated, Field Marshal Haig and 
his men have taken up the cause and the sword of George 
Washington. The reigning house of England has thor- 
oughly outgrown the Prussianism of its forebears, but 
the fight of 1776 and the fight of 19 18 are the beginning 
and the end of the popular revolt of the Anglo-Saxon 
against one and the same thing. Englishmen to-day arc 
fighting for democracy quite as truly as were the Americans 
of 1776. To the quip that General Pershing arrived in 
France three years late, it is easy to retort that General 
Haig was a hundred and forty years late. 

So democracy is not the reverse of kingship. Nations 
have abolished kings and substituted anarchy or degrada- 
tion instead of democracy for them, and nations have 
retained kings and accepted the spirit of democracy. The 
Problem of democracy is not the problem of getting rid 
of kings. It is the problem of clothing the whole people 
with the elements of kingship. To make kings and 
queens out of a hundred million people: That is the 
Problem of American democracy. 



82 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

AUTOCRACY AGAINST DEMOCRACY 

FREDERICK D. BRAMHALL 

[The author of these paragraphs is an instructor in poHtical science 
in the University of Chicago. The passage is taken from a dis- 
cussion called "Democracy the Basis for World-Order," in which 
the writer indicates "in what sense it is true that Germany stands 
as the chief enemy of democracy; how it is impossible for her, so 
long as that enmity lasts, to be a good neighbor in the world, and 
how that is the chief obstacle to our American hope for peace and 
world-order." General terms, such as "democracy" and "autoc- 
racy," are used by most people in a vague way. This extract is a 
successful attempt to sum up the real significance back of the words 
themselves. It makes it clear that these two words imply two dis- 
tinct and opposing faiths and methods in human affairs. They are 
utterly irreconcilable.] 

What do we mean when we say that Germany stands 
for autocracy against the democracies of the world? We 
do not mean anything so shallow as that her institutions 
of government are badly planned and should be amended. 
I suppose that may be said of the United States without 
treason, even in war time; and if this were a war to force 
Germany to adopt the United States Constitution, 
several of us might feel strongly inclined to be conscien- 
tious objectors. Such institutions are rather the mani- 
festations and symptoms of something more fundamental 
— of an attitude toward life and of settled principles of 
public conduct. Democracy is not a set of devices, a 
form of machinery of suffrage, of representation, of 
elections, of relations of executive and legislature, and 
the like, though they may all have something to do with it. 
It is not a thing to be enacted, not a goal to be attained 
and enjoyed. If it were that, and if we had attained it, 
why then the sooner we found something more important 
to talk about the better. No! Democracy is a method 
of progress. It is a faith — unproved like other faiths, 
but with heartening gleams of promise — a faith in a 



AUTOCRACY AGAINST DEMOCRACY 83 

common himianity; a belief that men are essentially the 
same kind of stuff; that in this long pilgrimage of history 
all travel a common road, and that only by the coopera- 
tion of all, by the recognition of all as common partners 25 
in the enterprise, with the common dignity of member- 
ship, the common experience of failure and achievement, 
can any sound and permanent advance, any progress 
worth fighting for, be attained. It denies then that there 
can be such a thing as a governing class. To attempt to so 
set aside any such class is in the first place an intolerable 
waste of htrnian spiritual resources; and in the second 
place it thwarts the hope of civilization. The progress 
of organized society is the progress of justice between 
men, and the fruitful ideas of social justice are not handed 3.> 
down from above, but forced up from below. Democ- - 
racy holds that only by raising the whole people to 
higher levels can any part of that nation ultimately 
prosper, and that only as participating and cooperating 
members can the whole people be raised. It stands for 40 
the appeal to reason. 

And what, by contrast, is autocracy? It is the appeal 
to authority as such, to prescription, to the method of 
power. It denies the righteousness and the profit of 
general cooperation. It believes in the management of 45 
many wills by the competent few. Where democracy 
holds that men are in general such that they will respond 
to opportunity and turn toward the light, autocrac}' 
holds that they must in general be managed for their own 
good and that of the state by a will that is not their own. 50 
Democracy invites the ranging human spirit to experi- 
ment with life. Autocracy proposes to order and regi- 
ment it. Democracy respects intrinsic human life with 
a respect touched with humility; autocracy distrusts and 
suppresses it. 55 



.■84 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

THE MORAL VALUE OF PATRIOTISM^ 

SHAILER MATHEWS 

[In these passages from a longer discussion with the same title, 
Dr. Mathews gives some definite meaning to terms that are often 
used vaguely, such as "nation," " nationality ," and "patriotism." 
Patriotism may be a "menace" or an "evangel of peace and 
justice." The conditions under which patriotism is a blessing are 
set forth in the clearest terms. "This is the patriotism of the 
future, " he says, "a loyalty to a nation which by its own morality 
and purpose seeks, not only to make the world safe for democracy, 
but to make democracy safe for the world. "] 

I 

A nation is more than a group of people living under a 
government and occupying a certain area. Of this we 
are sure. Yet just how to define the word lies beyond 
our power. Nationality is as shy of definition as life 
itself. In many cases it seems to express a common 
descent and inheritance of the same customs; but some 
who share these inheritances, like the Slavs, have no 
political unity. Sometimes, as in the United States, it 
is the expression of political unity, where there is no 
community of origin. Sometimes political history, origin, 
and community of cultural inheritances go to make up 
national feeling, as in the case of France, England, and 
Japan, although even in these countries each population 
may be traced back to different ethnic stocks. Modern 
nations have their history, but they themselves are more 
than history. In them all there is the plus element of what 
for lack of a better term may be called a national spirit. 
As President Faunce has so well said, "Nationality is 
a collective memory and a collective hope." Yet when 
we undertake to analyze and describe this spirit we find 
ourselves again involved in a maze of forces crossing and 
recrossing one another, by no means easy to combine 
either in logic or in fact. 

From Patriotism and Religion, copyright 1919. by the Macmillan 
Company. 



THE MORAL VALUE OF PATRIOTISM 85 

In treating of a nation we thus have to deal with an 
entity which is more or less logically arbitrary, but 2^ 
virtually real. France, for example, for centuries 
slowly evolved from a group of feudal states at last to 
find a unity in a constitution. But France to the French- 
man — and nowadays to the world — stands for something 
vastly more than a political unity. It has a place and so- 
a mission in the world to which its government is almost 
incidental. Similarly in the case of Germany. The 
German Empire as a political unity is vastly less impor- 
tant than das Deutschtum. 

So it comes to pass that loyalty to one's nation is 35- 
vastly more inclusive than loyalty to one's government. 
True, when as in the case of Germany a government 
is set forth as the state and makes its own ambitions 
and policies the guiding forces within the group which 
it rules, it becomes the object of loyalty. But the 40 
nation, whatever may be its constitutional aspect, *is 
more than its government. Loyalty to one's nation — 
or when government is imperfect or lacking, one's 
people — which is the only workable definition of patriot- 
ism, is on the one side a sort of property right in a social 45 
inheritance, and on the other side an idealistic devotion 
to the mission which its citizens believe is the duty of a 
state to perform. 

It follows, therefore, that patriotism gets its highest 
moral value not from itself as a state of soul. Patriotism so' 
no more than sincerity is a guaranty of wisdom. Its 
moral values are derived from the significance of the 
nation. If this significance be morally indefensible, 
patriotism becomes a menace. If the political, economic, 
and international policies of a nation are those which are 55> 
morally justifiable, patriotism is an evangel of peace and 
justice. 



86 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

II 

Unless history is about to reverse its tendencies it is 
the nation upon which we must build the future. Uni- 
versal hiunan welfare will result from cooperative national- 
ism. Great empires have not been possible since the 
rise of nations. The Roman Empire was able to produce 
an extraordinarily efficient type of internal organization 
and to continue through centuries of warfare because 
it did not have to face the problems of creative nations. 
The peoples it controlled had no further contribution to 
make to history, no traditions for which their citizens 
were ready to die. It was better for them to enjoy the 
Roman peace as subjects than to attempt revolt, for 
they had no national ideals worth fighting for. Only in 
the case of the little Jewish state was the Roman Empire 
threatened by a serious revolt. That is to say, there was 
no worthful patriotism because the nations had ceased to 
have the power to make contributions to human progress. 

When one compares the Roman Empire with the 
modem world a difference is at once apparent. It was 
threatened by no violated nationalism. Napoleon at 
one time controlled practically the entire Continent of 
Europe. But he was attempting to control national 
powers. His empire was short-lived because the inner 
forces of national life were expansive and yearly increased 
the strain upon the military unity and control which he 
imposed. National life was sooner or later bound to 
express itself in national explosions. 

The same thing is even more emphatically true now. 
If it were conceivable that the German people could 
establish a military empire like that of Napoleon, the 
rise of national patriotisms would sooner or later inaugu- 
rate a period of rebellion, war, and the reemergence of 
national units. We can already see this in the case of the 



THE MORAL VALUE OF PATRIOTISM 87 

Austro-Hungarian Empire, where the Poles, Czechs, and 
Jugo-Slavs are striving steadily for larger national self- 
existence. They can, of course, within certain limits be 
restrained and coerced, for they have no national organi- 
zation to give direction to ethnic loyalty. But an 
empire composed of conquered nations would compress 
national spirit to the point where violent disintegration 
would certainly appear. Militarism can maintain suprem- 
acy in a modern world only as long as its masters are 
outside the pale of the inevitable development of popular 
rights. The modern democracies are anti-militaristic, 
hostile to wars of conquest, and increasingly mindful of 
international justice. A German world-state would fall 
like any social anachronism. 

Admitting, therefore, that there are dangers in patriot- 
ism and that nations are as yet undoubtedly competitive 
groups, we are all the more concerned with the purposes 
and ideals of nations. The danger of patriotism to the 
world-order lies, not in nationality and patriotism, but in 
the sort of national policies which they represent. If 
nationality and patriotism are to be identified with Ger- 
man theories of the state, a German national loyalty will 
result. Nationality and patriotism are then undoubted 
evils which ought to be remedied. But a nation com- 
posed of persons who regard national welfare as consistent 
with the welfare of other nations is not a curse. Patriot- 
ism that prompts a nation to protect weaker nations from 
their stronger neighbors and seeks to lead in cooperative 
effort for the welfare of humanity is the promise of a new 
and better world-order. 

Can patriotism thus be made a cooperative rather than 
a belligerent virtue? Or in the age which is to come 
after the war must we expect a development of militaris- 
tic patriotism? Will the defeat of Germany mean what 



88 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

125 the success of Germany would mean? Is the world to 
become a group of mutually antagonistic political units 
each seeking its own advantage at the expense of others? 
Evidently these questions strike through economics and 
politics into the substratum of moral character of the 

130 nations themselves. On the answer given largely hangs 
our faith in the future. 

Ill 
Only in Germany, in Austria-Hungary, and in Turkey 
has the old type of patriotism, which consists in loyalty 
to a divinely established, irresponsible monarchy bent on 

135 the conquest, persisted without serious modifications. 

It is not of liberty that the German patriot boasts, but 
of his Kultur, defended and enforced by arms. And 
when Kultur is described by its evangelists it is seen 
to be a patriotism centering about a state relying upon 

140 military power rather than regard for personal rights. 

Thus in our day there appear two types of patriotism, 
that of democracy and that of autocrac^^ By their 
morals as by their history shall they be judged! 

The patriotism of the democratic powers has never 

145 been militaristic and has taken up the present conflict 
with loathing. The patriotism of the German is essen- 
tially militaristic and regards war as an integral part of a 
foreign policy. The patriotism of democracy has never 
demanded that its government should conquer lands 

150 possessed of settled national life. It has respected the 
rights of organized nations and has increasingly recog- 
nized the fact that loyalty to one's country involves the 
recognition of the rights of other nations. The patriot- 
ism of Germany has excluded all such recognition and 

155 has centered itself vigorously upon aggressive conquest 
and an immoral disregard of other nations' well-being. 
Justice, its leaders declare, is a civic virtue. "It is 



THE MORAL VALUE OF PATRIOTISM 89 

foolish," says Karl Peters (1915), "to talk of the rights 
of others; it is foolish to speak of a justice that should 
hinder us from doing to others what we ourselves do not leo 
wish to suffer from them." The supreme demand of 
such a patriotism has been for the extension of national 
boundaries, the appropriation of other nations' territory, 
the laying of crushing indemnities. The patriotism of 
democracy has sought to extend constitutional rights m 
even to those less organized peoples over whom its 
power has extended. The patriotism of autocracy has 
subordinated personal rights to the power of a state, 
deriving its authority from no other source than inherit- 
ance given sanction by an appeal to a German God. i;o 
When the democratic patriotism has turned to God, it is 
to the God who rules over other nations, who is the God 
of law and justice. When the patriotism of Germany has 
turned to God, it has been to a national god whose chief 
aim is to inspire the courage of those who draw the flash- 175 
ing sword and give comfort to those who have perished in 
the extension of national power and the brutal imposition 
upon other countries of its own national civilization. 

Their conception of national obligation and mission 
has further given to the patriotism of free peoples the iso 
conviction that the relations of nations must ultimately 
be based upon mutual recognition of national right? and 
national individuality. 

IV 

We may then challenge any man who claims to be a 
patriot to answer this question: For what does your iso 
nation standi* Does it stand for the imposition of a 
national civilization upon nations whose inhabitants have 
been killed and starved and deported? Does it stand for 
the elevation of force into a religion and the organization 
for war as a legitimate and inevitable method of national 190 



90 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

expansion? Or does it stand for liberty and opportunity 
for the individual, the right of weak nations to maintain 
their independence and their national traditions, the 
submission of international disputes to arbitration, and 

195 the hatred of war as a curse ? 

When we as Americans face such questions as this 
there need be no hesitation in our answer. It is time that 
we repudiated the slander which Germany has sedulously 
championed and propagated, that the United States is 

200 materialistic and dollar-mad. What nation in all the world 
has been more scrupulous in its regard of the rights of 
other nations? We have made mistakes. Vv^e have had 
our early period when we believed with other nations that 
it was right to conquer. But for seventy years we have 

205 dared follow ideals which are worthy of a Christian 
people. A war for four terrible years removed slavery 
from our constitutional life. We fought a war with 
Spain that Cuba might be free. And when we came 
into possession of the Philippines we not only paid an 

210 indemnity for our victory, but deliberately undertook to 
educate the Filipinos in the ways of democracy and self- 
government. We gave back an indemnity to Japan and 
refused to take a punitive indemnity from China. We 
have preserved the Western Hemisphere from European 

215 spoliation, and we have helped our neighboring weaker 
republics into financial health and international safety. 
We have refused to intervene in Mexico at the behest of 
concessionaires. We are at this moment fighting a war 
entailing unmeasured sacrifice, not only that we may be 

220 free from the terror that intrigues by da}^ and arms by 
night, but that the whole world may share in the same 
freedom. 

The citizen of the United States need not be blind to 
. the crudities, the blunders, and the national shortcomings 



THE LAW OF HIGH, RESOLUTE ENDEAVOR 91 

of his nation. Criticism is not tabooed by patriotism. 225 
We have done some things we ought not to have done 
and we have left undone some of the things we ought to 
have done ; but by the grace of God there is health in us ! 
We may whole-heartedly declare that we stand for a 
nation that has a mission ; that dares to help other nations 230 
who are in distress and is determined to right wrongs it 
may have done. This is the patriotism of the future, a 
loyalty to a nation which by its own morality and pur- 
pose seeks, not only to make the world safe for democracy, 
but to make democracy safe for the world. The millions 235 
of fathers and mothers who see their sons swept into the 
maelstrom of war have no conflict with their consciences. 
These sons are not the creatures of the will to power, but 
of the will to serve. Our patriotism dares glory in its out- 
look and its hopes because it knows that the triumph of 240 
our land is the triumph of the cause of a better humanity. 
And because of this vicarious nationalism it dares pray a 
God of justice to give it victory in battle. 



THE LAW OF HIGH, RESOLUTE ENDEAVOR 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

[This address was delivered at Milwaukee in the presidential 
campaign of 1901. Mr. Roosevelt was at that time a candidate for 
the vice-presidency. He had come into very great prominence in 
the Spanish- American War as the colonel of the "Rough Riders," 
and later as governor of New York. In this carefully prepared 
address he states the general features of the theory of life and citizen- 
ship which his career after that time as president and as private 
citizen put into practice. The general vigor and earnestness of 
his views about America's place among the nations and about the 
duties of American citizens at home make the speech worthy of 
study as a statement of strenuous American ideals.] 

In his admirable series of studies of twentieth-century 
problems Dr. Lyman Abbott has pointed out that we are 
a nation of pioneers; that the first colonists to our shores 



92 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

were pioneers, and that pioneers selected out from among 
the descendants of these early pioneers, mingled with 
others selected afresh from the Old World, pushed west- 
ward into the wilderness, and laid the foundations for 
new commonwealths. They were men of hope and 
expectation, of enterprise and energy; for the men of dull 
content or more dull despair had no part in the great 
movement into and across the New World. Our country 
has been populated by pioneers, and therefore it has in it 
more energy, more enterprise, more expansive power than 
any other in the wide world. 

You whom I am now addressing stand, for the most 
part, but one generation removed from these pioneers. 
You are typical Americans, for you have done the great, 
the characteristic, the typical work of our American life. 
In making homes and carving out careers for yourselves 
and your children, you have built up this State; through- 
out our history the success of the home-maker has been 
but another name for the upbuilding of the nation. The 
men who with axe in the forest, and pick in the moun- 
tains, and plough on the prairies, pushed to completion 
the dominion of our people over the American wilderness 
have given the definite shape to our nation. They have 
shown the qualities of daring, endurance, and farsighted- 
ness, of eager desire for victory and stubborn refusal to 
accept defeat, which go to make up the essential manli- 
ness of the American character. Above all they have 
recognized in practical form the fundamental law of 
success in American life — the law of worthy work, the 
law of high, resolute endeavor. We have but little room 
among our people for the timid, the irresolute, and the 
idle, and it is no less true that there is scant room in the 
world at large for the nation with mighty thews that 
dares not to be great. 



THE LAW OF HIGH, RESOLUTE ENDEAVOR 93 

Surely in speaking to the sons of men who actually did 
the rough and hard and infinitely glorious work of mak- 
ing the great Northwest what it now is, I need not insist 40 
upon the righteousness of this doctrine. In your own 
vigorous lives you show by every act how scant is your 
patience with those who do not see in the life of effort the 
life supremely worth living. Sometimes we hear those 
who do not work spoken of with envy. Surely the wil- 43 
fully idle need arouse in the breast of a healthy man no 
emotion stronger than that of contempt — at the outside, 
no emotion stronger than that of angry contempt. 

The feeling of envy would have in it an admission of 
inferiority on our part, to which the men who know not 50 
the sterner joys of life are not entitled. Poverty is a 
bitter thing, but it is not as bitter as the existence of rest- 
less vactiity and physical, moral, and intellectual flabbi- 
ness to which those doom themselves who elect to spend 
all their years in that vainest of all vain pursuits, the 55 
pursuit of mere pleasure as a sufficient end in itself. 
The wilfully idle m.an, like the wilfully bari'en woman, 
has no place in a sane, healthy, and vigorous community. 
Moreover, the gross and hideous selfishness for which 
each stands defeats even its own miserable aims. Exactly eo 
as infinitely the happiest womian is she who has borne 
and brought up many healthy children — so infinitely the 
happiest man is he who has toiled hard and successfully in 
his life work. The work may be done in a thousand 
different ways; with the brain or the hands, in the study, 65 
the field, or the workshop; if it is honest work, honestly 
done and well worth doing, that is all we have a right to 
ask. Every father and mother here, if they are wise, will 
bring up their children not to shirk difficulties, but to 
meet them and overcome them; not to strive after a life 70 
of ignoble ease, but to strive to do their duty, first to 



94 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

themselves and their families and then to the whole State ; 
and this duty must inevitably take the shape of work in 
some form or other. You, the sons of pioneers, if you are 
true to your ancestry, must make your lives as worthy as 
they made theirs. They sought for true success, and there- 
fore they did not seek ease. They knew that success 
comes only to those who lead the life of endeavor. 

It seems to me that the simple acceptance of this funda- 
mental fact of American life, this acknowledgment that 
the law of work is the fundamental law of our being, will 
help us to start aright in facing not a few of the problems 
that confront us from without and from within. As 
regards internal affairs, it should teach us the prime need 
of remembering that after all has been said and done, 
the chief factor in any man's success or failure must be 
his own character; that is, the sum of his common-sense, 
his courage, his virile energy and capacity. Nothing can 
take the place of this individual factor. 

I do not for a moment mean that much cannot be done 
to supplement it. Besides each of us working individu- 
ally, all of us have got to work together. We cannot 
possibly do our best work as a nation unless all of us know 
how to act in combination as well as how to act each 
individually for himself. The acting in combination can 
take many forms, but, of course, its most effective form 
must be when it comes in the shape of law; that is, of 
action by the community as a whole through the law- 
making body. 

But it is not possible ever to insure prosperity merely 
by law. Something for good can be done by law, and a 
bad law can do an infinity of mischief; but, after all, the 
best law can only prevent wrong and injustice, and give 
to the thrifty, the far-seeing, and the hard-working a 
chance to exercise to the best advantage their special and 



THE LAW OF HIGH, RESOLUTE ENDEAVOR 95 

peculiar abilities. No hard and fast rule can be laid 
down as to where our legislation shall stop in interfering 
between man and man, between interest and interest. 
All that can be said is that it is highly undesirable, on 
the one hand, to weaken individual initiative, and on the no 
other hand, that in a constantly increasing number of 
cases we shall find it necessary in the future to shackle 
cunning as in the past we have shackled force. 

It is not only highly desirable, but necessary, that 
there should be legislation which shall carefully shield 115 
the interests of wage-workers, and which shall discrimi- 
nate in favor of the honest and humane employer by 
removing the disadvantages under which he stands when 
compared with unscrupulous competitors who have no con- 
science, and will do right only under fear of punishment. 12a 

Nor can legislation stop only with what are termed 
labor questions. The vast individual and corporate 
fortunes, the vast combinations of capital, which have 
marked the development of our industrial system, 
create new conditions, and necessitate a change from the 125 
old attitude of the state and the nation towards property. 

It is probably true that the large majority of the for- 
tunes that now exist in this country have been amassed 
not by injuring our people, but as an incident to the 
conferring of great benefits upon the community; and 130 
this, no matter what may have been the conscious pur- 
pose of those amassing them. There is but the scantiest 
justification for most of the outcry against the men of 
wealth as such, and it ought be to unnecessary to state 
that any appeal which directly or indirectly leads to 135 
suspicion and hatred among ourselves, which tends to 
limit opportunity, and therefore to shut the door of 
success against poor men of talent, and, finally, which 
entails the possibility of law^lessness and violence, is an 



96 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

140 attack upon the fundamental properties of American 
citizenship. Our interests are at bottom common; in the 
long run we go up or down together. Yet more and more 
it is evident that the state, and if necessary the nation, 
has got to possess the right of supervision and control, as 

145 regards the great corporations which are its creatures; 
particularly as regards the great business combinations, 
which derive a portion of their importance from the 
existence of some monopolistic tendency. The right 
should be exercised with caution and self-restraint ; but it 

150 should exist, so that it may be invoked if the need arises. 
So much for our duties, each to himself and each to his 
neighbor, within the limits of our own country. But our 
country, as it strides forward with ever-increasing rapid- 
ity to a foremost place among the world powers, must 

155 necessarily find, more and more, that it has world duties 
also. There are excellent people who believe that we 
can shirk these duties, and yet retain our self-respect; 
but these good people are in error. Other people seek 
to deter us from treading the path of hard but lofty duty 

160 by bidding us remember that all nations that have 
achieved greatness, that have expanded and played their 
part as world powers, haA^e in the end passed away. So 
they have, and so have all others. 

The weak and the stationary have vanished as surely 

165 as, and more rapidly than, those whose citizens felt 
within them the life that impels generous souls to great 
and noble effort. This is another way of stating the 
universal law of death, which is itself part of the universal 
law of life. The man who works, the man who does 

170 great deeds, in the end dies as surely as the veriest idler 
who cumbers the earth's surface; but he leaves behind 
him the great fact that he has done his work well. So it 
is with nations. While the nation that has dared to be 



THE LAW OF HIGH, RESOLUTE ENDEAVOR 97 

great, that has had the will and the power to change the 
destiny of the ages, in the end must die, yet no less surely 17.5 
the nation that has played the part of the weakling must 
also die; and whereas the nation that has done nothing 
leaves nothing behind it, the nation that has done a 
great work really continues, though in changed form, 
forevermore. The Roman has passed away, exactly as iso 
all nations of antiquity which did not ex-pand when he 
expanded have passed away; but their very memory has 
vanished, while he himself is still a living force through- 
out the wide world in our entire civilization of to-day, 
and will so continue through countless generations, i8,> 
through untold ages. 

It is because we believe with all our heart and soul in 
the greatness of this country, because we feel the thrill 
of hardy life in our veins, and are confident that to us is 
given the privilege of playing a leading part in the m 
century that has just opened that we hail with eager 
delight the opportunity to do whatever task Providence 
may allot us. We admit with all sincerity that our first 
duty is within our own household; that we must not 
merely talk, but act, in favor of cleanliness and decency 195 
and righteousness, in all political, social, and civic matters. 
No prosperity and no glory can save a nation that is 
rotten at heart. We must ever keep the core of our 
national being sound, and see to it that not only our 
citizens in private life, but, above all, our statesmen in m 
public life, practice the old commonplace virtues which 
from time immemorial have lain at the root of all true 
national well-being. 

Yet, while this is our first duty, it is not our whole 
duty. Exactly as each man, while doing first his duty 205 
to his wife and the children within his home, must yet, 
if he hopes to amount to much, strive mightily in the 



98 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

world outside his home; so our nation, while first of all 
seeing to its own domestic well-being, must not shrink 

210 from playing its part among the great nations without. 

Our duty may take many forms in the future as it has 

taken many forms in the past. Nor is it possible to lay 

down a hard and fast rule for all cases. We must ever 

face the fact of our shifting national needs, of the always- 

215 changing opportunities that present themselves. But 
we may be certain of one thing: whether we wish it or 
not, we cannot avoid hereafter having duties to do in 
the face of other nations. All that we can do is to settle 
whether we shall perform these duties well or ill. 

220 Right here let me make as vigorous a plea as I know 
how in favor of saying nothing that we do not mean, and 
of acting without hesitation up to whatever we say. 
A good many of you are probably acquainted with the 
old proverb, "Speak softly and carry a big stick — you 

225 will go far. " If a man continually blusters, if he lacks 
civiUty, a big stick will not save him from trouble, and 
neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness 
there does not lie strength, power. In private life there 
are few things more obnoxious than the man who is 

230 always loudly boasting, and if the boaster is not prepared 
to back up his words, his position becomes absolutely 
contemptible. So it is with the nation. It is both fool- 
ish and undignified to indulge in undue self-glorification, 
and, above all, in loose-tongued denunciation of other 

235 peoples. Whenever on any point we come in contact 
with a foreign power, I hope that we shall always strive 
to speak courteously and respectfully of that foreign 
power. Let us make it evident that we intend to do 
justice. Then let us make it equally evident that we 

240 will not tolerate injustice being done to us in return. 
Let us further make it evident that we use no words 



THE LAW OF HIGH, RESOLUTE ENDEAVOR 99 

which we are not prepared to back up with deeds, and 
that while our speech is always moderate we are ready 
and willing to make it good. Such an attitude will be 
the surest possible guarantee of that self-respecting 245 
peace, the attainment of which is and must ever be the 
prime aim of a self-governing people. 

This is the attitude we should take as regards the 
Monroe Doctrine. There is not the least need of bluster- 
ing about it. Still less should it be used as a pretext for 250 
our own aggrandizement at the expense of any other 
American state. But, most emphatically, we must make 
it evident that we intend on this point ever to maintain 
the old American position. Indeed, it is hard to under- 
stand how an}^ man can take any other position now that 255 
we are all looking forward to the building of the isthmian 
canal. The Monroe Doctrine is not international law, 
but there is no necessity that it should be. 

All that is needful is that it should continue to be a 
cardinal feature of American policy on this continent; 260 
and the Spanish-American states should, in their own 
interests, champion it as strongly as we do. We do not 
by this doctrine intend to sanction any policy of aggres- 
sion by one American commonwealth at the expense of 
any other, nor any policy of commercial discrimination 26.5 
against any foreign power whatsoever. Commercially, 
as far as this doctrine is concerned, all we wish is a fair 
field and no favor ; but if we are wise we shall strenuously 
insist that under no pretext whatsoever shall there be 
any territorial aggrandizement on American soil by any 2-0 
European power, and this, no matter what form the 
territorial aggrandizement may take. 

We most earnestly hope and believe that the chance 
of our having any hostile military complication with any 
foreign powder is very small. But that there will come a 275 



100 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Strain, a jar here and there, from commercial and agri- 
cultural — that is, industrial — competition, is almost 
inevitable. Here again we have got to remember that 
our first duty is to our own people; and yet that we can 

2S0 best get justice by doing justice. We must continue that 
policy that has been so brilliantly successful in the past, 
and so shape our economic system as to give every advan- 
tage to the skill, energy, and intelligence of our farmers, 
merchants, manufacturers, and wage- workers; and yet 

285 we must also remember in dealing with other nations 
that benefits must be given where benefits are sought. 
It is not possible to dogmatize as to the exact way of 
attaining this end; for the exact conditions cannot be 
foretold. In the long run one of our prime needs is sta- 

290 bility and continuity of economic policy; and yet, through 

treaty or by direct legislation, it may, at least in certain 

cases, become advantageous to supplement our present 

policy by a system of reciprocal benefit and obligation. 

Throughout a large part of our national career our 

295 history has been one of expansion, the expansion being 
of different kinds at different times. This explanation is 
not a matter of regret, but of price. It is vain to tell a 
people as masterful as ours that the spirit of enterprise is 
not safe. The true American has never feared to run 

300 risks when the prize to be won was of sufficient value. 

No nation capable of self-government and of developing 

by its own efforts a sane and orderly civilization, no 

matter how small it may be, h&s anything to fear from us. 

Our dealings with Cuba illustrate this, and should be 

305 forever a subject of just national pride. We speak in no 
spirit of arrogance when we state as a simple historic fact 
that never in recent times has any great nation acted 
with such disinterestedness as we have shown in Cuba. 
We freed the island from the Spanish yoke. We then 



THE LAW OF HIGH, RESOLUTE ENDEAVOR loi 

earnestly did our best to help the Cubans in the estab- 310 
lishment of free education, of law and order, of material 
prosperity, of the cleanliness necessary to sanitary well- 
being in their great cities. We did all this at great 
expense of treasure, at some expense of life, and now we 
are establishing them in a free and independent common- 315 
wealth, and have asked in return nothing whatever save 
that at no time shall their independence be prostituted 
to the advantage of some foreign rival of ours, or so as to 
menace our well-being. To have failed to ask this would 
have amounted to national stultification on our part. 320 

In the Philippines we have brought peace, and we are 
at this moment giving them such freedom and self- 
government as they could never under any conceivable 
conditions have obtained had we turned them loose to 
sink into a welter of blood and confusion, or to become 325 
the prey of some strong tyranny without or within. 
The bare recital of the facts is sufficient to show that we 
did oiu- duty, and what prouder title to honor can a 
nation have than to have done its duty? We have done 
our duty to ourselves, and we have done the higher duty 330 
of promoting the civilization of mankind. 

The first essential of civilization is law. Anarchy is 
simply the handmaiden and forerunner of tyranny and 
despotism. Law and oi;der enforced by justice and by 
strength lie at the foundation of civilization. Law must 335 
be based upon justice, else it cannot stand, and it must 
be enforced with resolute firmness, because weakness in 
enforcing it means in the end that there is no justice and 
no law, nothing but the rule of disorderly and unscrupulous 
strength. Without the habit of orderly obedience to the 340 
law, without the stern enforcement of the laws at the 
expense of those who defiantly resist them, there can be 
no possible progress, moral or material, in civilization. 



102 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

There can be no weakening of the law-abiding spirit at 

345 home if we are permanently to succeed, and just as little 
can we afford to show weakness abroad. Lawlessness 
and anarchy were put down in the Philippines as a pre- 
requisite to inducing the reign of justice. 

Barbarism has and can have no place in a civilized 

350 world. It is our duty toward the people living in bar- 
barism to see that they are freed from their chains, and 
we can only free them by destroying barbarism itself. 
The missionary, the merchant, and the soldier may each 
have to play a part in this destruction, and in the con- 

355 sequent uplifting of the people. Exactly as it is the duty 
of a civilized power scrupulously to respect the rights 
of all weaker civilized powers and gladly to help those 
who are struggling toward civilization, so it is its duty to 
put down savagery and barbarism. As in such a work 

360 human instruments must be used, and as human instru- 
ments are imperfect, this means that at times there will 
be injustices; that at times merchant, or soldier, or even 
missionary may do wrong. 

Let us instantly condemn and rectify such wrong when 

365 it occurs, and if possible punish the wrong-doer. But 
shame, thrice shame, to us, if we are so foolish as to make 
such occasional wrong-doing an excuse for failing to 
perform a great and righteous* task. Not only in our 
own land, but throughout the world, throughout all 

370 history, the advance of civilization has been of incal- 
culable benefit to mankind, and those through whom it 
has advanced deserve the highest honor. All honor to 
the missionary, all honor to the soldier, all honor to the 
merchant who now in our own day have done so much to 

375 bring light into the world's dark places. 

Let me insist again, for fear of possible misconstruc- 
tion, upon the fact that our duty is twofold, and that we 



THE LAW OF HIGH, RESOLUTE ENDEAVOR 103 

must raise others while we are benefiting ourselves. In 
bringing order to the Philippines, our soldiers added a 
new page to the honor-roll of American history, and they sso 
incalculably benefited the islanders themselves. Under 
the wise administration of Governor Taft the islands now 
enjoy a peace and liberty of which they have hitherto 
never even dreamed. But this peace and liberty under 
the law must be supplemented by material, by industrial, 38.5 
development. Every encouragement should be given 
to their commercial development, to the introduction of 
American industries and products; not merely because 
this will be a good thing for our people, but infinitely 
more because it will be of incalculable benefit to the 390 
people of the Philippines. 

We shall make mistakes; and if we let these mistakes 
frighten us from work, we shall show ourselves weak- 
lings. Half a century ago Minnesota and the two Dakotas 
were Indian hunting-grounds. We committed plenty of 395 
blunders, and now and then worse than blunders, in our 
dealings with the Indians. But who does not admit at 
the present day that we were right in wresting from bar- 
barism and adding to civilization the territory out of which 
we have made these beautiful States? And now we are 400 
civilizing the Indian and putting him on a level to which 
he could never have attained under the old conditions. 

In the Philippines let us remember that the spirit and 
not the mere form of government is the essential matter. 
The Tagalogs have a hundredfold the freedom under us 405 
that they would have if we had abandoned the islands. 
We are not trying to subjugate a people; we are trying 
to develop them, and make them a law-abiding, indus- 
trious, and educated people, and we hope, ultimately, a 
self-governing people. In short, in the work we have 410 
done, we are but carrying out the true principles of our 



104 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

democracy. We work in a spirit of self-respect for our- 
selves and of good- will toward others; in a spirit of love 
for and of infinite faith in mankind. We do not blindly 

415 refuse to face the evils that exist, or the shortcomings 
inherent in himianity; but across blunderings and shirk- 
ing, across selfishness and meanness of motive, across 
shortsightedness and cowardice, we gaze steadfastly 
toward the far horizon of golden triumph. 

420 If you will study our past history as a nation you will 
see we have made many blunders and have been guilty 
of many shortcomings, and yet that we have always in 
the end come out victorious because we have refused to 
be daunted by blunders and defeats — have recognized 

425 them, but have persevered in spite of them. So it must be 
in the future. We gird up our loins as a nation with the 
stern purpose to play our part manfully in winning the 
ultimate triumph, and, therefore, we turn scornfully aside 
from the paths of mere ease and idleness, and with 

430 unfaltering steps tread the rough road of endeavor, 
smiting down the wrong and battling for the right as 
Greatheart smote and battled in Bunyan's immortal story. 

SOME THINGS MEN FIGHT FORi 

FREDERICK PALMER 

[The author, now on General Pershing's staff, was from the begin- 
ning of the Great War the official American representative of the 
Associated Press with the allied armies on the Western front. ^ He 
writes most fluent, graceful, and stirring prose. When the United 
States entered the war, Mr. Palmer wrote a little book called With 
Our Faces to the Light. "Now the struggle, " he says, "that I 
had seen begun with the young Belgian King's call of his country 
to arms; that I had seen continued in Belgium's living death under 
German rule, in a Paris holding its breath while it waited word 
from the Mame, in the glad pursuit of the Germans to the Aisne, in 
all the processes of trench vigils and attacks and counter attacks 
on the Western front, had become our struggle. It meant Virginia 
and Maine and California as well as Flanders and France; it meant 



i From With Our Faces in the Light, copyright 191 7, by Dodd. Mead 
and Company, Inc. 



SOME THINGS MEN FIGHT FOR 105 

you and me. " The passages that follow tell us what our action 
meant as "patriotism of the soil" and as the "patriotism of tradition." 
To understand the mention of Virginia in an early paragraph, keep 
in mind that the author was traveling across his native state as the 
ideas of the chapter took form in his mind.] 

I 

War opens the national ledger, puts the stethoscope on 
the national heart, sounds the national character. Had 
we grown soft, as some people said? Were we only an 
agglomeration of races and not a nation? What spirit 
did we bring to our task? How deep and how true was 
our patriotism? 

I had had many lessons in patriotism from association 
with those men whose courage was a wall in France 
between us and the Germans. One of indelible simpli- 
city I had from Francis Grenfell who saved the guns at 
Mons, when he was convalescing from his second wound. 

"That is what we are fighting for, " he said, as we were 
strolling above the valley of the Thames and he swept 
his hand toward the carpet of hedge and field. 

Later, on the same afternoon, he asked me if I should 
like to see the diary which he had kept through the 
retreat from Mons and the first battle of Ypres. We sat 
in the silent library of the house while I read his brief, 
soldierly, unaffected account. Frequently there were 
only a few lines of entry, but many times the last words 
of the day were, "For England I" written out of the 
heart in the secrecy of a private journal. Again he wrote, 
"I am glad to do this for England," after the fighting 
had been particularly hard and his part very active. 

"When I go back I suppose that I shall get it," he 
said, as a matter of course. "Not that one wants to die. 
Who does?" and he looked fondly out of the window 
across the sweep of lawn toward the banks of his beloved 
Thames — which he was not to see again. 



io6 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

"Isn't that worth fighting for?" I thought, as I 
looked out at the Virginia fields. 

Then I was back in thought in a captured German 
trench, and a Frenchman, speaking of what France 
meant to him, took up a handful of soil: 

"This is France!" he said. "I have France in my 
hand!" 

His roots were in the earth. His ancestors were in 
France when C^sar came with his conquering legions. 
He had not to reason about the causes of the war. His 
cause was under his feet in the inheritance of countless 
generations of Frenchmen, holding fast to their tongue, 
their literature, their France. 

Where he had only a country from the Mediterranean 
to the North Sea and Grenfell only a country from 
Land's End to John o' Groat's, I had a country extending 
from Canada to the Rio Grande and from the Atlantic 
to the Pacific. Long periods of absence had taught me 
to envisage it as a whole. Sheer legal titles to real estate 
aside, I had a claim on the whole. Where Grenfell and 
the Frenchman were poor in acres I was rich. 

As either man spoke I was not seeing the valley of the 
Somme or the Thames, but the New England hills and 
the factory towns beside the winding streams; the valley 
of the Hudson, which you may enjoy for the taking of a 
train; the rich, black acres of the Middle West turned 
under the plow ; the cotton fields in bloom ; the Mississippi 
with the immensity of its eternal flow calling to the 
imagination as a unifying power to all the States and 
towns which it passed on its way to the Gulf; the irriga- 
tion farms in the midst of the desert; the Rockies in 
massive grandeur outdoing imagination; and the orange 
groves and all the world beyond the Rockies looking out 
toward the Pacific — all was America, where I was at 



SOME THINGS MEN FIGHT FOR 107 

home in the great, widespread American family. I 
could take up the soil of any part of it in my hand and 
say that it was mine. 

"When I think what England has done for me, this is 
the least that I can do for England," said Grenfell. 

To him it was simply a matter of paying a debt ; a debt 
which in this instance was paid with his life to the land 
that had given him life. 

I recalled a dedicatory ceremony in a small town at 
home. A man who had gone from the small town to the 
city when he was young and accumulated a fortune had 
given to his native place a recreation park. All of the 
speech-making was about the honor that he had brought to 
the community by being born there. No one mentioned 
what the community had done for him; even he over- 
looked the thought, which would have brought the light 
into his face if it had occurred to him. He was only 
paying his debt to the mother earth of his rootage with 
his gold, a debt which some have to pay with their lives. 
For the time comes to every nation when it must pay its 
debt to its parent soil. 

How much America has done for us! How much we 
owe to this new land, fallow to our rootage, pliant to our 
shaping ! Some parts of it have beauty of scene and rich- 
ness of loam together; others, monotonous distances and 
hard tillage. Nothing looks better to me when I return 
from enforced absence abroad than a stone wall run- 
ning over the knoll of a Connecticut farm. The Tiber is a 
commonplace river, but it was the mother river to the 
Romans who set the mistress city of the world on its 
bank. The Greeks immortalized in sculpture the marble 
ridges of their sterile land which they loved because it 
was theirs. There is no true patriotism without the 
patriotism of the soil. 



io8 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

II 

There is the patriotism of tradition, too. It is a 
hollow form unless you live up to it; the excuse of inertia, 

100 the proxy of courage and sacrifice for a dying people in 

their degeneration. Need one ask if we had it when one 

was in Virginia? George Washington was a Virginian. 

The European thinks of us as young. We are and, 

let us hope, ever shall be young, and ever with our faces 

105 in the light. Yet we are old — the oldest of the great 
republics. Our tradition is one hundred and forty-one 
years young or old, as you please. It began with the 
winning of freedom and the shaping of it. Where other 
nations take their tradition from kings who built for 

no themselves unlimited monarchies, we take ours from an 
elected President. We had freedom when England still 
sent prison ships to Australia and parliamentary insti- 
tutions were not yet born in France, which does not 
ensure that we shall retain it or prove that Americans 

115 are freer than Englishmen and Frenchmen to-day. Such 
a guarantee rests with the present generation, and with 
every present generation in all the ages to come. 

Those of us who have felt the racial pull in this war had 
best remember that Washington fought his race for a 

120 principle. We have been neglecting Washington of late 
years, perhaps. He is of sterner stuff than some of the 
dispensations of an irresolute democracy favor. We shall 
revert to him more and more as we come to sterner times. 
He made the nation. Others have had only to hold it 

125 together. 

To the average American of to-day he is a kind of 
autocrat, this greatest of republicans; a dim, shadowy 
figure in the garb of the age of aristocracy ; but I envis- 
age him as near, human and real as he mounted his horse 

130 to ride away to take command at Cambridge in the 



SOME THINGS MEN FIGHT FOR 109 

prime of manhood. Never did mortal set out with a 
finer Hght in his face, or on a braver mission, or on one 
which meant more to the world. Never had a people a 
finer tradition in leadership. 

Those Australians and Canadians who are fighting in 135 
France, more than they realize, owe the heritage of their 
freedom to the lesson that Washington's sword taught; 
and all kings of the German breed, whether set on home 
or on foreign thrones to-day or in '76, owe him eternal 
hate. But for him and his tattered regiments there m 
might have been no allied cause and the invasion of 
Belgium would not have shocked the sensibilities of 
civilized conscience. 

The richest man in America may take a lesson from him 
who was the richest man of his time in Virginia. With 145 
all to lose, he risked all. His wealth and family position 
assuring aristocracy's favor if he chose it, he might 
naturally have inclined to be a loyalist; and if he had 
George III of Hanover would have won. He faced the 
odium of rebellion, of personal ruin, when precedent did 150 
not augur the success of rebellion against the intrenched 
monarchism of Europe. Yet with his broken, ill-fed 
troops in retreat, harassed by intrigue, his resolution 
never faltered. No matter what the distress of his cause 
he fought cleanly — and how cleanly compared to the 155 
way that Prussian monarchism has fought! Without 
munitions he stuck it as the British and the French stuck 
it at Ypres, for he was the sticking kind. 

Valley Forge, not Gettysburg or Lexington, should be 
the shrine of our patriotic pilgrimages. Lexington was leo 
the flash of patriotic impulse w^hich might have been 
merely the abortive uprising of some farmers if the 
rebellion had not become a revolution. Valley Forge was 
the test of democracy in arms; the trying out of the 



no THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

165 manhood of the country. In that winter camp came the 
decision whether or not we were worthy of winning a 
heritage, as again and again our worthiness to preserve 
it must be proven. 

The rehcs of the old headquarters at Valley Forge, 

170 which I visited after the Somme battle, were only the 
symbols which helped me in these days of luxury to 
visualize that stalwart republican seated at the table, 
going over his papers with the exactitude of the thrifty 
planter, the considerate employer that he was; holding 

175 his temper under great stress and letting it flash out 
humanly over cowardice or incompetency; or stooping in 
his height to pass out of the door to make the rounds of the 
log huts, reprimanding a malingerer, heartening a sentry 
in a storm with a kindly word, bringing the light into the 

180 faces of his ill-clad, half -famished men when the world 
thought that his cause was lost. 

I should be small-minded indeed not to be proud of 
ancestors who had shared such hardships, and smaller- 
minded still if I thought that the latest immigrant to 

185 arrive at ElHs Island might not be as good a citizen as I. 

It is well to repeat these obvious things lest we forget 

them; well to remember the fortitude which made us a 

nation when fortitude is required of us again. 

Washington had no gift for speeches or infectious catch 

190 phrases which use tradition as the mask for a play of 
words. He made tradition. He wrought with deeds. 
If he had chosen he might have been dictator, even 
king; but this was the thing he fought against. The 
spirit that sent him into retirement as a citizen when 

195 his work was finished — that is the spirit which is arming 
a civilized world more than a century later against the 
usurpation of power. He had no thought of being an 



THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA in 

indispensable man; therefore he was the indispensable 
man. His was the patriotism of character; Valley- 
Forge the patriotism of fortitude. 200 

THE SPIRIT OF AMERICA 

FRANKLIN K. LANE 

[This is the second half of Secretary Lane's address at the com- 
mencement exercises at Brown University, June 21, 1916. It brings 
vividly before us a favorite thought of Americans that the essence of 
Americanism rests in the capacity to surmount obstacles by the 
inspiring force of a worthy ideal. Since this address was delivered, 
Mr. Hoover has become our national food administrator. He has 
had in his charge the tremendous problems of conservation and 
distribution of food supplies so that our own people at home, our 
armies abroad, the allied nations, and the neutral nations might all 
be fed.] 

A spirit is intangible. It defies definition or limita- 
tion. It can only be made comprehensible by acts. So 
let me illustrate my idea of the spirit of Amemca by 
naming two men -^ both Calif ornians — Theodore Judah 
and Herbert Hoover. 5 

All have heard of Huntington, Stanford, Hopkins, and 
Crocker, the builders of the Central Pacific Railroad. 
The real builder of that road was a young Connecticut 
engineer named Judah. He had the vision, he made the 
surveys. He found the way across the mountains. Then 10 
he found Stanford the grocer and Huntington the hard- 
ware man and told his dream and showed his plans. 
They caught fire. Judah convinced them that Congress 
could be made to supply the money. He came to Wash- 
ington, became the clerk of the Senate Committee on 15 
Pacific Railroads, then the clerk of the House Com- 
mittee, wrote both reports; the bill was passed, and going 
home in triumph he died upon the Isthmus of Panama. 
The spirit of young Judah has been the making of America. 



112 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

The next man I name to you is Herbert Hoover, mining 
engineer — Hoover of California, Hoover of Siberia, 
Hoover of Russia, Hoover of England, Hoover of Belgium, 
Hoover of the world, the head of the Belgian Relief 
Committee. That young man comes to this country 
unnoticed and leaves unnoticed. But his administrative 
mind has made possible the feeding of a nation. He has 
organized the financial system for Belgium. Through him 
the heart of the world has spoken to those suffering people. 

This young man is only a mining engineer from Stanford 
University who has drifted all round the world, and when 
the war broke out was living in England, managing a 
great industrial and mining property in the Ural Moun- 
tains. A hundred thousand men were at work for him, 
and all the genius that he had was at once put to work to 
succor the unfortunate Belgians. I shall never forget the 
simplenvay in which he told me of his adventure in going 
to France and asking for help. He went to the Premier 
and said: "I have got to have some money for the relief 
of the Belgians," and the Premier said: "But we have 
a war ourselves, we have destitute people of our own. 
How much do you think you should have from us?" 
"And I said, 'Well, I think we should have twenty-two 
million francs a month from you until the war is over.* 
And the Premier said, 'Oh, my, we have not the money, 
but I will see the banks, I will see what can be done.' 
And I went back to London with my heart sick. But 
the next day there came a letter saying, 'Dear Mr. 
Hoover, please find check for twenty-two million francs. 
I beg you will acknowledge it, ' signed by the Premier of 
France." And each month the same check has come 
and no question has ever been asked as to how it was spent. 

He said to me with a glow: "Do not believe that the 
American flag is not respected abroad. If anyone ever 



MY DEBT TO MY COUNTRY 113 

tells you that, tell him to go to Brussels and stand in 
front of the United States legation and see the Belgian as 
he passes take off his hat to the Stars and Stripes; no 
English flag, no French flag, no Russian flag, no Spanish 
flag, no Japanese flag, no Chinese flag, but the Stars and 
Stripes, which never have been hauled down in Belgium, 
and from sunrise in the morning until sunset at night the 
Belgian peasants and Belgian artisans pass that house, and 
as each passes takes his hat off to that flag. " 

Judah the incarnation of the spirit of American ambi- 
tion to make hard places easy. Hoover the incarnation 
of the spirit of American desire to help the world. Let 
us stand beside the Belgian peasant before that flag over 
in Brussels and take heart. 

MY DEBT TO MY COUNTRY 

FREDERICK G. MUTTERER 

[One of the striking facts about foreign-born citizens of the United 
States is their loyalty to their adopted country. The statement 
that follows has been chosen as fairly representative of this loyal 
class. Very simply the speaker tells us the main points in his 
spiritual autobiography. As a poor boy he came to America, 
worked his way to an education, and became the head of the depart- 
ment of German language and literature in an institution for higher 
learning. There is no hesitation when the test comes as to whether 
he will stand by the country of his birth or by the country which 
gave him his chance and with which he had cast his lot. It is of 
course inevitable that he should feel keenly the tragedy of the old 
Germany of ideals lost in the later Germany of autocratic miHtarism.) 

I am perhaps the only one among this present assembl}^ 
whose cradle stood on the enemy's soil, and whose play- 
mates and those nearest in blood have become the bitter 
enemies of his own country, 'and whose aged mother — if 
she still lives — is forced to pray to God that He may help 
to defeat the cause for which her son's country is fighting. 
I have been teaching the German language and German 
literature in this institution for a number of years. I 



114 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

have taught my classes to esteem the works of Germany's 
great spiritual heroes. I hold in higli regard Lessing, 
Goethe, Schiller, and many, many others who have made 
invaluable contributions to the world's permanent 
spiritual possessions and have brought repute to the 
German race. Of course many of you know this, and I 
can't blame you, in these times of peril, when every one 
of us should not only valiantly defend, but also jealously 
guard, the safety of this Nation and its institutions, if 
you have wondered whether in my case the call of blood is 
not stronger than the feeling of right and gratitude and 
duty. I am not ashamed of my German name nor of my 
German blood, but I feel deeply aggrieved against the 
German militaristic party, the German Imperial Govern- 
ment, Prussianism, and the unholy German arrogance 
which made good blood and a good name "a challenge 
to the world" and which have discredited the spiritual 
contributions of old Germany. I believe that the great 
majority of the Americans of German descent feel the 
same intense grievance towards this dire power. 

Personally, I feel no obligation to either the Imperial 
German Government or the government of the particular 
state in which I was born. The meager educational and 
social opportunities it provided for that community in 
which I spent the first fifteen years of my life were, as I 
see it now, more calculated to make of me a contented, 
harmless subject than a good citizen and valuable man. 
Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing were not in our course of 
study, but many a patriotic song, and many a poem of 
loyalty to princes and of heroism in the battlefield; 
much Bible reading, especially of the Old Testament; 
much dogmatic interpretation of biblical passages and 
catechism, and much church history since the time of 
Luther. The possessions of real value to me personally, 



MY DEBT TO MY COUNTRY 115 

which I acquired during those childhood days, the school 
authorities of that community did not intentionally 
put within my reach; other forces and other men and 
women helped me to them. The governmental system 
gave little to that small community and wanted much 
from it. It wanted high taxes, to maintain royally its 
royal house, to pay the salaries of its thousands of high 
and petty officials, to pay for its church, which was most 
generous . in its consolation and admonitions but most 
miserly in its comfort and inspiration ; it wanted in those 
days for three years every able-bodied son who had 
reached his twentieth year for the army; it offered in 
return starvation wages and frequently there was not 
even enough work for the willing ones to earn even that. 
The strong impulse within me to make something of 
myself facing the futility to do so under the described 
conditions, and the natural repugnance for militarism as 
I saw it and its consequences in that little community, 
in that beautiful wooded valley of the Black Forest moun- 
tains, sent me, a boy of fifteen years, away from the home 
I loved, sent this boy, alone, thousands of miles across 
the sea to a people whose language he did not know, but 
to the land of his youthful hopes. One of the happiest 
days of my boyhood was that day when I held in my 
hands the government passport permitting me to leave 
Germany for this country. I can truthfully confess that 
never for a single moment have I regretted that step, and 
can gratefully avow that this country gave me more 
freedom, and its people and institutions greater oppor- 
tunity for self-development, than I had anticipated in my 
boyhood speculation. To me my adopted country has 
been most generous. Can you doubt where my heart is 
in this struggle? Can you question to which govern- 
ment I am loyal? I renounced and abjured in deed all 



ii6 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

allegiance and fidelity to the Imperial German Govern- 
ment when, at eighteen, I refused to obey the formal 
governmental summons to return to Germany and 

80 register for military service at the court house of my 
native county. I "renounced and abjured" by verbal 
oath and by my signature before the judge of the county 
court of Christian County, Illinois, "all allegiance ^nd 
fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, state or 

85 sovereignty whatever, and more particularly all allegiance 
which I especially owe to William II, Emperor of Ger- 
many," when I was twenty-two years old, as early as in 
my case circumstances permitted. I am very proud of 
the document which the clerk of the court put into my 

90 hands on that day, and ever since then I really have felt 
myself a full-fledged citizen of the United States and an 
American. Even if my tongue at times betrays the 
German blood that flows in my veins, my head thinks as 
loyally and my heart beats as sincerely for the good of 

95 this country as any man's can, whether his ancestors 
landed on Plymouth Rock or built their first hut on the 
banks of the James River. 

As a loyal citizen of this country, I, with other Ameri- 
cans of German blood, have all the grievances against the 

100 Imperial German Government which you native-born 
Americans have, but we have in addition other very 
serious grievances also, which you need not have. As 
Mr. Otto H. Kahn of New York puts it in his Milwaukee 
address, "In the gloomy and accusing procession of 

105 infinite sorrow and pain which was started on that thrice- 
accursed day of July, 19 14, the hurt inflicted on Ameri- 
cans of German descent takes its tragically rightful place. 
The iron has entered our souls. 

"We have been wantonly robbed of invaluable posses- 
no sions which have come down to us through the centuries. 



MY DEBT TO MY COUNTRY 117 

We have been rendered ashamed of that in which we took 
pride. We have been made enemies to those of our own 
blood. Our very names carry the sound of a challenge to 
the world. Surely we have all too valid a title to rank 
among those most bitterly aggrieved by Prussianism and 115 
to align ourselves in the very forefront of those who in 
word and in deed are fighting to rid the world forever of 
that malignant growth. " ' 

To support my presumption in stating so frankly and 
so much of my own personal case, I quote further from 120 
Mr. Kahn's address: " I believe that we should speak out, 
we Americans of German birth, because we have been 
misrepresented to our fellow citizens and to the world 
by a small minority of professional spokesmen and agita- 
tors, by no means all of German birth. We must protect 125 
the German name as far as it is in our keeping. in America. 
Alas, we can't protect it elsewhere. It has always, and 
rightly, been an honored name here, and those who bore 
it have ever done their full share in the common weal, 
in the works of peace no less than in every crisis of the 130 
nation's history. Let us do what in us lies to preserve 
the names we bear in honor and good standing amongst 

our fellow citizens I believe that -we should speak 

out to convince our native fellow citizens that our funda- 
mental conceptions of right and wrong are like theirs, 135 
and that the taint of Germany is not in the blood, but in 
the system of rulership; that we are with them and of 
them whole-heartedly, single-mindedly, and unreservedly 
because if we failed in conveying to them that conviction 
in the hour of our common country's stress and trial, ho 
there would ensue a calamity of a spiritual, if not actual, 
break between them and us which it would take genera- 
tions to heal. " 

We are now in this great war. I for one cannot separate 



ii8 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

145 myself from the common great cause of this country's 
mission, as it was announced by our great, humanly 
generous, and firm President in his last two messages to 
Congress. What is in me to do I shall do when my 
country calls. Whatever it be, I shall not consider it a 

150 sacrifice, only a duty that I owe and a righteous debt 
which I want to pay. 

A MESSAGE FROM FRANCE 

JOHN H. FINLEY 

[The turning of the energies of a great nation to the one supreme 
purpose of winning a war necessarily disturbs many of the ordinary 
lines of activity. Such a centering of the attention may even keep 
us from realizing that now, more than ever, the necessity exists for 
educating those upon whom the future welfare of the country must 
depend. Commissioner Finley uses the inspiring example of what 
sorely stricken France is doing after four years of devastating war- 
fare, to impress upon us that there must be no slackening of our 
educational efforts. The fact that the speaker is talking from his 
own observations in France gives point and force to what he says.] 

There are two armies for the defense of our civiliza- 
tion. One is the Army of Present Defense; the other is 
the Army of Future Defense. We have for months that 
have run into years watched the former, marveling at its 

5 valors, sympathizing with its losses. We are now mobiliz- 
ing and training our own forces to join in that defense on 
the crucial line, which civilization must hold. 

But this side of that line is the other army, pictured by 
M. Viviani, former Minister of Public Instruction in 

10 France, when he said: "Unless the military authorities 
forbid, the schools must everywhere be kept open. Then 
it may be said that our 'scholastic front' follows every- 
where the very line of the trenches, being never more 
than ten kilometers distant, often less than two. " 

15 From the military front we have daily report. Hun- 
dreds of correspondents watch its every movement. 



A MESSAGE FROM FRANCE 119 

The whole world, whatever its occupation, turns every 
morning to see what is happening there. But of the vast 
other army, in France alone, twice or three times the first 
army in size, there are but meager reports. It is only 
when its teachers and pupils are mobilized into the first 
that we are likely to hear of them, either fighting in the 
trenches or helping in some specific way to give material 
aid or spirit to those who are exposing their lives to make 
the world a safe place for free human beings to live in. 

It was this second army, this "scholastic front," that, 
representing a portion of our conscript Army of Future 
Defense, — tens of thousands of teachers and millions of 
children — I went to France to see, in order that we 
might have some advice of those under whose tuition the 
immortal valors of the first army have been nourished. 

Of the militar}' front I shall not speak, for hundreds of 
Americans permitted to visit that trench strip (which I 
have called "Everyman's Land" and which I hope is to 
give foundation for many international institutions of the 
new world democracy) have seen more than I of its 
heroisms and horrors, though I traveled the length of it 
from where it touches the English line, near St. Quentin 
(whose spireless cathedral I could see), to St. Die under 
the German guns, not more than a half dozen miles from 
the "blue line of the Vosges, " which marks the border 
between France and its lost Alsace — St. Die, to which I 
made a pilgrimage (behind camouflage for many miles of 
the way) , because it was there that the name ' ' America ' ' 
is said first to have been put on the printed page. 

Tens, and I think hundreds, of thousands of men of 
that Army of Present Defense I saw in ceaseless stream 
of blue flowing to and fro from the front under skies 
stained by the enemy's menace and over fields planted 
with danger, or dotted with graves, but there is nothing to 



[20 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

say of them that the world does not and will not know as 
long as history tells her story. My one envy in life is of 
those who are permitted to take their places in that line. 
And I must quote, in passing from it to the other front, 
the letter of a girl in one of the lycees that I visited — 
the lycee where General Gallieni had his quarters for a 
time early in the war — a letter which in one paragraph 
graphically depicts the distance by which the millions on 
either side of that narrow, trenched strip are separated; 
and in the second, intimates the closeness of the sympathy 
between France and America: 

It was only a little river, almost a brook ; it was 
called the Yser. One could talk from one side to 
the other without raising one's voice, and the birds 
could fly over it with one sweep of their wings. 
And on the two banks there were millions of men, 
the one turned toward the other, eye to eye. 
But the distance which separated them was greater 
than that of the stars in the sky ; it was the distance 
which separates right from injustice. 

The ocean is so vast that the sea gulls do not 
dare to cross it. During seven days and seven 
nights the great steamships of America, going at 
full speed, drive through the deep waters, before 
the lighthouses of France come into view ; but from 
one side to the other hearts are touching. 
But the other army whose first lines are within sound 
and range of the guns! — one covets the eloquence of a 
Viviani to tell of its no less heroic endurances and achieve- 
ments and of its vital importance to the future of France 
which the present valors of her people are revealing to the 
world and defending against destruction. 

When one hears that more than four thousand teachers 
of those in France (thirty thousand men were called from 



A MESSAGE FROM FRANCE 121 

the elementary schools alone at the beginning of the war, 85 
and of course many thousands later) who have been 
called from the Army of Future Defense to that of Present 
Defense have been cited for military valor, one can 
believe that the same heroic spirit pervades the entire 
teaching body of France and that the remark of the 90 
Rector of the University of Nancy was warranted. I 
had been looking at the broken walls of an elementary 
school, wrecked by a shell which fell upon it in the midst 
of a morning's session. The master of the school, when 
the shells began to fall near the school building, timed 95 
the interval between the first shells, got his children in 
line for marching, and then the moment a third or fourth 
shell fell, marched them to a building seventy paces 
away that had a cellar with stout walls. The next shell 
penetrated the school building and would doubtless have 100 
killed or maimed all the children had they remained. I 
said to ^ the Rector that this teacher should have been 
given the croix de guerre. "No," said the Rector. 
"No, any teacher in France would have done this" — 
which recalls a sentence from the first report of the pres- 105 
ent Director of Elementary Education after the begin- 
ning of the war, to the effect that the teachers having 
been accustomed before the war to think continuously of 
the good of their pupils were kept even in the trenches 
from egotism and selfishness. 110 

And I find a better figure than my own in the tribute 
of this gentle Director whom I found in his office in the 
Rue de Grenelle, but in daily touch with this "scholastic 
front": 

"We admire, not without reason, the serenity of the 115 
farmer who, two steps from the battle line, is sowing for 
the future his grain on the bloody furrows. And many 
such farmers or farmers' wives I saw on those furrows, 



122 THE WORLD AND DE.MOCRACY 

while the Httle puffs of smoke showed that the enemy 

120 was in their skies. Let us admire none the less these 
teachers who, all along the line of fire, hold their classes 
within the sound of the cannon; they are also sowing for 
the future." 

Again and again in my journey there came to me the 

125 saying of Voltaire: "The spirit of France is the candle 
of Europe." Voltaire saw it glowing in the peasants' 
huts, and he would see it now in the trenches were he in 
France to-day; but I saw its flame, too, in the dim- 
cloistered places of learning, in the halls of the lycees 

130 and even in little and meagerly furnished rooms of the 
schools of France, which except for its light would have 
seemed sad and somber places. And one could but 
recall, too, what Voltaire said further in speaking of 
this candle of Europe, as if in divination of what had 

135 come to pass. "You English," he said, "(nor all other) 

can blow it out And you English will be its 

screen against the blowing out, though in spasms of 
stupidit}^ you flaunt the extinguisher." 

The winds, savage in temper and fury beyond any that 

140 have ever blown over the earth, have been driving 
across France from the northeast; winds that have razed 
villages to dust, that have felled trees by thousands in 
the fields, that have poisoned waters with their breath, 
that have shown no respect for schools or hospitals or 

145 churches, that have not only demanded the fertile earth 

in their path, but have torn it so that it will not for. years, 

if ever, be able to support life. But, despite all this, the 

spirit of France, the candle of Europe, is unquenched. 

France has restricted the use of food, fuel, and light; 

150 she has discouraged travel except for reasons of necessity ; 
she has mobilized every able-bodied man for present 
defense; but she has not for one moment forgotten her 



A MESSAGE FROM FRANCE 123 

future defense. She has even opened schoois in caves 
and occasionally provided teachers and pupils with gas 
masks; she has put women by thousands in the places of 155 
men teachers called to the front; she has received back 
into service many men with marks of honor upon their 
breasts, who have been incapacitated by wounds, to teach 
again in the schools they had left. Indeed, I have 
seen many hundreds of children from the occupied leo 
territory being taught in casernes (barracks) by their 
women teachers who had fled with them. But she has 
not, except under compulsion of cannon and bombs, 
taken from any child that heritage in which alone is the 
prophecy of an enduring nation. m 

The able-bodied men of France are fighting in the first 
army to preserve the candle that holds the flame, but 
the teachers are fighting as valiantly in the other to make 
the candle worth the grim game — this candle of Europe 
which has become the candle of civilization. 170 

The advice which France, out of her physical anguish 
but unabated aspiration of spirit, sends to us from her 
"scholastic front" is this: *'Do not let the needs of the 
hour, however demanding, or its burdens, however 
heavy, or its perils, however threatening, or its sorrows, 175 
however heart-breaking, make you unmindful of the 
defense of to-morrow, of those disciplines through which 
the individual may have freedom, through which an 
efficient democracy is possible, through which the institu- 
tions of civilization can be perpetuated and strengthened, iso 
Conserve, endure taxation and privation, suffer and 
sacrifice, to assure to those whom you have brought into 
the world that it shall be not only a safe but also a happy 
place for them." Not that France has put this advice 
into words. She would consider that presimiing. It is m 
the advice of her doing that I have attempted to translate. 



124 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

THE HOPE OF THE WORLD 

HERMANN HAGEDORN 

[In a little book called You Are the Hope of the World, Mr. 
Hagedorn makes an appeal to the girls and boys of America to 
take up earnestly and understanding^ the work of remaking a 
devastated world. It is a stirring appeal. The author does not 
hesitate to use the very language of Young America itself. There 
is nothing bookish about it. Without mincing matters he tells us 
in what respects we have been weighed in the balance and found 
wanting. Our splendid traditions, our boundless spirit of optimism, 
our unlimited opportunities for service in the cause of humanity — 
all these are so presented that the contagious enthusiasm of the 
speaker grips us as with hoops of steel. It has been difficult to 
make a selection from a book where every page sets the blood tin- 
gling and calls forth the determination to be true to the heritage of 
the past and to make the glorious ideals of our present actual reali- 
ties in the life of the whole world.] 

Girls and boys of America, you are the hope of the world! 

What now does the world ask you to do to fulfill that 
hope? It asks you, first of all, to sit down and think 
about your country; and then, when you have taken 
thought, it asks you to jump to your feet and do some- 
thing ! 

The world is sick of kings and hungry for democracy. 
The world has been sick of kings a long while and it was 
hungry for democracy even in Christ's time. But the 
world knows very well that the reason kings have clung 
on is that kings are efhcient and democracies muddle. 
Kings are not growing any less efRcient; democracies, 
therefore, will have to stop muddling or give up the 
game. Youth of America, which shall it be? 

A hundred and forty years ago boys of your age were 
fighting for the liberty you now enjoy. Have you ever 
considered what it would mean to you if that liberty 
should be taken from you? Liberty has come to you 
as a birthright. The institutions under which you live 
seem to you firm and eternal as the Rockies. But they 
are not firm and they are not eternal. They are neither 



THE HOPE OF THE WORLD 125 

fire-proof nor bomb-proof. They are not even rat-proof. 
This nation cannot exist on its splendid past. It must 
have a splendid present, or it will have no future at all. 
The present is yours. What are you going to do with it? 

I believe I know what you are going to do, because I 
believe, Young America, that I know you. Only a quitter 
would cry in an hour like this: "I'll do what I've always 
done — go my own way." But you are not quitters. 
You are the opposite of quitters! You are the worthy 
heirs of an heroic line. The men and women who have 
gone before you loved democracy and many of them 
labored and died that democracy might grow strong and 
expand. Your elder brothers are learning how to fight, 
and if the Great War goes on — as it may — for two, three, 
or four years more, you who are boys now will have to 
learn how to defend democracy with arms against assault 
from without. But you who are ten, twelve, fourteen, 
fifteen, sixteen, seventeen to-day, can and must begin 
now to acquire that more difficult training which shall 
enable you to defend democracy against assault from 
withm. The enemies of democracy do not always come 
as armies with banners. 

Your brothers are going oversea to fight democracy's 
external foes. Be you soldiers likewise in the same great 
cause ! There are two wars to fight : a war without and 
a war within. You are too young to fight in France. 
But the youngest of you is not too young to fight here 
at home for a keener participation of all in the gov- 
ernment of his town, his state, his nation. You may 
be too young to die for democracy ; but no girl or boy is 
ever too young to live for democracy ! 

Your country is at war. You cannot go to the front. 
But, in the highest sense, you are the true Home Guard. 
Are you going to do your part? 



126 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

In your nation's critical hour, girls and boys of America, 
what are you going to do ? ... . Now, then, clear 
the deck for action ! Away with lies first of all ! Over- 
board with self-delusion! This is our first labor for 
democracy, that we look at ourselves squarely and try to 
see ourselves as we are. 

Clear eyes now, and no wincing! We're first of all 
sentimentalists. We believe what we want to believe, 
and wdiat we don't want to believe, we ignore. 

We're wasteful — look at our forests, look at the youth 
in our slums! 

We're materialistic — look at the faces in our cities, 
look how hard we are to arouse in defense of a principle! 

We're improvident, blindly careless of everything 
beyond the present hour — we never prepare! 

As citizens we are indifferent — we will endure in our 
government every form of extravagance, inefficiency, and 
corruption conceivable rather than jump into the midst 
of the mess and help to clean it up. 

What can you do ? 

The newspapers are full, these days, of what your city, 
your state, your nation, are doing for the protection of 
their citizens and the defense of American principles 
abroad. Let it be your part to find out what your city, 
your state, yqur nation, are doing for the welfare of their 
citizens and the upholding of American principles at 
home. .... 

What can you do ? 

You can, each of you, begin now to make yourself, 
what every American should be, a vital part of the 
machinery of the American government. 

You can do more. You can create a tradition of alert 
citizenship, a tradition of public service. You have now 
in your schools and colleges a tradition of clean athletics 



THE HOPE OF THE WORLD 127 

A man must not play summer baseball, he must not slug, 90 
he must not break training. You have a tradition, 
moreover, of service to the college or school. A man must 
come out for the team, he must do something in coopera- 
tion with his fellows — sing, write, row, tinkle the banjo 
— or he will lose caste and not be elected to the Hush- 95 
button Club. He must play square by his team, his class, 
his college. But he need not play square by his city, his 

state, or his nation For there is no tradition of 

public service. 

Young America, it is your opportunity and your 100 
obligation to create that tradition; for if such a tradition 
is ever to have influence in the lives of men and women, 
it must become a part of their lives in school time and 
college time. Do you see the possible force of such a 
tradition? If you do, then set forth and gather a friend 105 
or two friends or three friends about you and "in congress 
assembled," like the Grand Old Fellows of 1776, deter- 
mine that henceforth you will think about the needs of 
America, and argue about the needs of America, and give 
your hands and your hearts to serve the needs of America, no 

If there is to be a tradition of public service in this 
country, you, girls and boys, must start that tradition. 
Your elders can't do it. Such a thing «annot be handed 
down from the desk. It must start as a spark in the 
heart of one of you and kindle that heart to fire. And 115 
that heart must kindle other hearts, and those hearts must 
kindle other hearts still, until, throughout the nation, the 
words America, democracy, and public service meet, in the 
eyes of girls and boys, not dull indifference, but a flame ! 
No instruction in history, government, civics, or any other 120 
form of training for citizenship which schools and colleges 
can give is worth the time and energy it takes to teach it, 
unless, meeting it, in the hearts of girls and boys, is the 

10 



128 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

desire for public service. Though every schoolteacher 
125 and college president in the country — and there are 
saints among them — should leap to his feet to-day and 
cry, "I will teach my girls and boys to be citizens!" their 
best intentions would be without result as long as that 
desire for public service remained unawakened. You must 
130 run ahead. You, the awakeners; you, the Paul Reveres; 
you, the kindlers of fire in frozen and indifferent hearts. 
.... I tell you, the time has passed when we could afford 
to chatter lightly over the teacups concerning the needs 
and the shortcomings of our country. Smash the cups, 
135 Young America, and come out and fight, that government 
of the people by the people for the people shall not perish 
from the earth. Fight! Not with guns, but with your 
brains ! Your elder brothers will have to fight with guns ; 
many of them will have to die here or with their fellows- 
no in-democracy in France and Flanders. 
Hail and good luck to them ! 

To you, girls and boys of ten, twelve, fourteen, fifteen, 
sixteen, seventeen, is given a work every bit as grand as 
dying for your country; and that is, living for the highest 
145 interests of your country ! 

Those interests are the interests of democracy. 
If, therefore, ^ou live for the highest interests of 
America, you live at the same time for the highest interests 
of the world. In that struggle, the goal is neither national- 
ise ism nor internationalism. It is democracy. It is a 
lasting peace among nations; and, as far as it is humanly 
possible, amity among men. 

Go to it ! Go to it, girls and boys of America ! 
You are the hope of the world! 



PART II 

FOUNDATIONS OF DEMOCRACY: ALLIED 
STATESMEN AND WRITERS 



The democracy of the future must be 
a great deal better and cleaner than any 
which now exists, with more reverence , 
more discipline, more love of beauty, 
more joy in life, as well as more social 
justice and better distribution of wealth, 
more freedom for the soul and more 
friendliness between man and man. 
Towards this end, however dimly seen 
and distantly followed, all the nations 
that have suffered together in the War of 
the World's Liberation must contribute, 
bringing their various gifts. 

— Gilbert Murray, in Preface 

to Faith, War, and Policy 



PART II 
INTRODUCTORY 

In his fine discussion on "The Moral Value of 
Patriotism," in Part I, Dr. Shailer Mathews points out 
that the worth of patriotism depends on the ideals, the 
spirit, of the nation that calls for loyalty. Nationality, 
in other words, is very much more than the geographical 
aspects of some portion of the earth's surface. Nation- 
ality is that something that lies at a people's heart. The 
spirit that is really America, or France, or England is 
not something that suddenly springs into being at a time 
of crisis. We are likely to be more conscious of it then, 
but a little thought will show us that the principles that 
make up a nation's consciousness are evident throughout 
the long-developing policies of the land. 

Such is the point of view seen throughout all the 
selections chosen to suggest the meaning of American 
democracy. It is equally evident here in all the pas- 
sages by which the interpreters of other nations make 
clear the spirit of their peoples. And it is especially of 
momentous interest that if the names of the countries 
were left blank and the illustrative instances were less 
specific we might easily think that the speakers for our 
associates in this war were talking of our own nation. 
We have been in the habit of characterizing Englishmen 
or Frenchmen by external qualities in which they differ 
from us rather than by the more fundamental qualities 
in which we are alike. It has taken this world war to 
make it evident that there are in essence just two patriotic 
types called by the general names of "democratic" and 

131 



132 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

"autocratic." The free nations of the earth have paid 
a great price for the certain knowledge of their spirit- 
ual kinship, but that knowledge is indeed priceless. It is 
difficult to believe that national prejudices can ever 
again be as prominent as they were before 19 14. The 
region of the allied battle front has well been called 
"Everyman's Land." The chosen millions who fought 
there, and the many more millions who gave and upheld 
those who fought will, while gaining increased devotion 
to their own land, never lose the sense of oneness with 
other peoples. 

It is not a matter for surprise, therefore, to find Vis- 
count Bryce asserting that England stands for the same 
great ideals that we claim for ourselves — love of liberty, 
the claims of nationality, sacredness of national obliga- 
tions, humaneness, opposition to militarism. He does 
not fail to observe that a nation, like an individual, must 
learn some things through bitter experience. Thus: 
"Once in her history, one hundred and forty years ago, 
she lost the North American colonies because, in days 
when British freedom was less firmly established than it 
is now, a narrow-minded and obstinate king induced his 
government to treat those colonies with unwise harshness. 
She has never forgotton that lesson, and has more and 
more come to see that freedom and nationality are a 
surer basis for contentment and loyalty than is the appli- 
cation of force." One splendid result of Britain's hav- 
ing learned this lesson was the way in which her great 
dependencies rallied to the support of her cause through- 
out the war. Viscount Bryce points out why those who, 
like himself, have been opponents of war in general still 
have heartily supported this war. It is because "the 
future of mankind seems to us to be at stake" in the 
victory of one or the other of the principles in conflict. 



INTRODUCTORY 135 

The world is determining whether the doctrine that "the 
State is Power " or the doctrine that "the State is Justice " 
is to rule. In closing he makes a plea for an "effective 
League of Peace" after the war. This is quite in line 
with President Wilson's "League of Nations." The 
whole discussion is an excellent example of the power of 
quiet, restrained, unexcited statement of a case. 

The Flame of France — how well this title of a book 
suggests the inner quality of what France means to us. 
It is a spirit to which, embodied in the figure of the 
youthful Lafayette, the eternal youth of our own land 
has always responded. Nowhere does this "flame" burn 
with a keener brilliance than in the orators of France. 
"Words that breathe and thoughts that burn," poetic 
expression though it be, seems to take on reality of mean- 
ing even in reading the translation, without the magnetic 
presence of the speaker, of the words of an orator like 
Viviani. In the example chosen ,to illustrate his elo- 
quence he does not present in detailed argument the 
justification of his country's cause. His appeal is to our 
higher feelings, our love of fair play. We no longer see 
France as a land full of individuals. She is a shamefully 
mistreated woman, and we are listening with growing in- 
dignation to the story of her wrongs. We see her robbed, 
hectored, insulted. We see her bearing all until asked to 
humiliate her honor. And then we see her children rising 
at the call of their mother. Skillfully the orator plays 
upon our feelings by his gracious recognition of our moral 
support given in the early days of France's agony, and 
by his assumption that our natural understanding of the 
issues involved made it finally impossible to stand aloof. 
Oratory is sometimes said to have had its day in the 
affairs of men, but a great occasion can still call forth a 
glowing instance such as this address. 



154 THE WORLD AXD DEMOCRACY 

Maeterlinck and Verhaeren, Belgium's two great men 
of letters, seem fit voices for that heroic little nation. It 
is possible to conceive that Gennany might have con- 
ducted the war in such a way as to have commanded 
some support from the world outside her vassal allies. 
But her c\-nical disregard of treaty rights, the bnitalities 
of the earlier days of the invasion, tlie open avowal of 
lier statesmen that military necessity knows no law, 
turned public opinion ever\"where almost entirely against 
her. The thing, however, that caught the immediate 
s>Tnpathy of the world with a completeness not to be 
shaken was the thrilling example of a pygmy among 
nations, in size merely, flpng at the throat of a great 
enraged colossus without stopping to estimate the inequal- 
ity of the conflict. No wonder that everybody at once 
recalled Julius C^ssar's two-thousand-year-old tribute: 
"The bravest of all these are the Belgians. " No wonder 
that her spokesmen are proud of her king, proud of her 
little army, proud of her people, and, above all else, 
proud of her pride. Very literally Belgium saved ci\ali- 
zation, ''saved the world while kno-^-ing that she could 
not be saved." 

In Premier Lloyd George's statement of "Britain's 
War Aims" we have the responsible government state- 
ment of what the Allies expected to achieve. In such an 
address ever\- word must be carefully weighed. There is 
a clear recognition of the people's right to the full con- 
fidence of their government. The Premier emphasizes 
the fact that he speaks after ad\-ising w4th all sections of 
thought and opinion. He makes clear what "we are not 
fighting for." There is a clear distinction drawn, as in 
President Wilson's message, between the German Govern- 
ment and the German people, and the suggestion is made 
that the best proof Germany could give of being ready for 



INTRODUCTORY 135 

a just peace would be the adoption of " a really democratic 
constitution. " Insistence is made upon the principles of 
restoration and reparation, self-determination on the part 
of subject peoples, and a final settlement that will pre- 
clude the possibility of future wars. "After all," he 
says, "war is a relic of Vjarbarism. " It is significant that 
this address was made only a few days before President 
Wilson formulated his "fourteen points." The practical 
identity of the terms outlined in the two documents sug- 
gests that they were intended to present the final agree- 
ment which had been arrived at Vjy the allied countries as 
to the peace terms to be enforced. 

In all that statesmen and writers have said about the 
war the word "democracy" holds leading place. In "The 
Sjjirit of Democracy" a representative of the latioring 
classes, a statesman of recognized vision and power, tells 
what he thinks the word means. It means the divine 
right of peoples to liberty and equality, the reign of free- 
dom and justice, international cooperation and goodwill. 
It means that moral qualities are the essentials of national 
greatness. It means the recognition of the importance of 
the individual, for "democracy can never rise to the full 
greatness of its possibilities unless the individual rises to 
the highest point of moral greatness." Democracy can 
take full advantage of its glorious opportunities only as 
a people "fired by moral passion and lofty ideals, led by 
men and women inspired to action by high purpose and 
unselfish ambition." 

We have noticed in a preceding paragraph how the 
opponents of war in general have found themselves sup- 
porting this war because they realized that the future of 
civilization was at stake. In the selection to which we 
have given the title "Ennobling Tragedy," one of the 
most earnest of these opponents points out * * some cases 



136 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

of extraordinary good. " Instead of finding that the war 
has brutaHzed soldiers he finds that "they are daily doing 
nobler things than we most of us have ever had the chance 
of doing, things which we hardly dare hope we might be 
able to do. " He tells two stories of such ''nobler things " 
to illustrate his meaning. These were instances from the 
first days of the war. Anyone familiar with the multitu- 
dinous personal records that have come from the front 
could multiply these instances by the hundreds. The 
inspiring fact about such cases is the confidence in human 
nature which they give us. They show that the call to 
clearly seen duty which will tax the utmost strength and 
perhaps mean the spending of life itself is "one form 
at least of high happiness, and one that appeals — the 
facts prove it — not only to saints and heroes, but to 
average men." 

The literary men and women, as well as the fighting 
men, were mobilized for service. In democratic countries 
enlightened public opinion is a first necessity. In our 
own country the organization known as "The Vigilantes" 
has done yeoman work, first, in awakening the public to 
the imminence of war, and second, in steadying the public 
mind in the midst of war. In England writers like Mrs. 
Humphry Ward, Kipling, Barrie, Masefield, Chesterton 
— to mention a few of a multitude — have done similar 
service in using their great powers to picture for those at 
home the work of their representatives in the field. In 
"The American Invasion of England," spoken at the dedi- 
cation of a "hut" at the Winchester camp, Mr. Kipling 
is engaged in one of those little amenities that have 
made the Americans feel so welcome in all the friendly 
countries which they have "invaded." His pleasantries 
about the willingness of England to be occupied by the 
armed forces of a foreign nation, contrary to the common 



INTRODUCTORY 137 

notion of her attitude, or the suggestion that the starting 
of a pyramid would not annoy her, show him in his most 
jovial mood. But he does not fail to pay his respects to 
the devil, and to make clear through his pleasantries that 
both he and his hearers know what the war is about 
and what it is to accomplish. Nothing could be better 
than the close with its magnificent welcome of his listeners 
to the "honorable and gallant fraternity of comrades- 
in-arms the wide world over. " 

In England, as elsewhere, the problems of education 
have recently had much attention. Parliament has just 
passed an education bill that puts the schools on an 
essentially democratic foundation and practice. The 
closing selection in the group, "Democracy and Educa- 
tion," is not an exposition of the new scheme. Rather 
it is a general attempt to suggest what are the principles 
of a democratic education and to point out what their 
acceptance would mean in practice. Some way must 
be found, the writer thinks, to reconcile the claims of 
utilitarian and cultural demands. The importance of 
developing "imaginative sympathy" receives a much- 
needed emphasis, and the whole spirit of the educational 
argument is in keeping with what others have been saying 
about the future political ideals of the world. 



WHAT ENGLAND STANDS FOR 

JAMES BRYCE 

[Viscount Bryce has long been regarded as one of the sanest and 
most far-sighted of modern statesmen. His The American Common- 
wealth is a standard work on our government. He was the British 
ambassador at Washington at the beginning of the war. Since his 
return to England he has done great service by his work on various 
commissions, particularly in the investigation of atrocities per- 
petrated by the Germans in Belgium and France and by the Turks 
in Armenia. His Attitude of Great Britain in the Present War is 
marked by the simplicity, clearness, and breadth of illustration that 
characterize fullness of knowledge. Our selection is taken from 
that discussion. It is worth noting that this discussion, like Presi- 
dent Wilson's addresses, concerns itself with fundamental principles 
and ideals, and that he, like our President, is an earnest advocate 
of a League of Nations that shall make for the amity of the world.] 

Now let me try to state what are the principles which 
animate the British people, making them believe they have 
a righteous cause, and inducing them, because they so 
believe, to prosecute the war with their utmost energy. 

There is a familiar expression which we use in England 
to sum up the position and aim^s of a nation. It is "What 
does the nation 'stand for'?" What are the principles 
and the interests which prescribe its course? What are 
the ends, over and above its own welfare, which it seeks 
to promote? What is the nature of the mission with 
which it feels itself charged? What are the ideals which 
it would like to see prevailing throughout the world? 

There are five of these principles or aims or ideals which 
I will here set forth, because they stand out conspicu- 
ously in the present crisis, though they are all more or 
less parts of the settled policy of Britain. 

I 

The first of these five is Liberty. 

England and Switzerland have been the two modern 
countries in which Liberty first took tangible form in 

138 



WHAT ENGLAND STANDS FOR 139 

laws and institutions. Holland followed, and the three 20 
peoples of the Scandinavian North, kindred to us in 
blood, have followed likewise. 

In England Liberty appeared from early days in a 
recognition of the right of the citizen to be protected 
against arbitrary power and to bear his share in the work 25 
of governing his own community. It is from Great 
Britain that other European countries, whose political 
condition had, from the end of the Middle Ages down to 
the end of the eighteenth century, been unfavorable to 
freedom, drew, in that and the following century, their 30 
examples of a government which could be united and 
efficient and yet popular, strong to defend itself against 
attack, and yet respectful of the rights of its own members. 
The British Constitution has been the model whence most 
of the countries that have within recent times adopted 35 
constitutional government have drawn their institutions. 
Britain has herself during the last eighty years made her 
constitution more and more truly popular. It is now as 
democratic as that of any other European country, and 
in their dealings with other countries, the British people 40 

have shown a constant sympathy with freedom 

II 

Britain stands for the principle of Nationality. She 
has always given her sympathy to the efforts of a people 
restless under foreign dominion to deliver themselves 
from the stranger and to be ruled by a government of 45 
their own. The efforts of Greece from 1820 till her 
liberation from the Turks, the efforts of Italy to shake off 
the hated yoke of Austria and attain national unity 
under an Italian King, found their warmest support in 
England. English Liberals gave their sympathy to 50 
national movements in Hungary and Poland. They 
gave that sympathy also to the German moveriient for 



I40 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

national unity from 1848 to 1870, for in those days that 
movement was led by German Liberals of lofty aims who 
did not desire, as the recent rulers of Germany have 
desired, to make their national strength a menace to 
the peace and security of their neighbours. In India, 
England has long ceased to absorb into her dominions 
the native States, and has been seeking only to guide 
the rulers of those States into the paths of just and 
humane administration, while leaving their internal aiiairs 

to their own native governments 

Ill 

England stands for the Maintenance of Treaty Obliga- 
tions and of those rights of the smaller nations which rest 
upon such obligations. The circumstances of the present 
war, which saw Belgium suddenly attacked by a Power 
that had itself solemnly guaranteed the neutrality of 
Belgian territory, summoned England to stand up for 
the defence of those rights and obligations. Her people 
feel that the good faith of treaties is the only foundation 
on which peace between nations can rest, and, especially, 
is the only guarantee for the security of those which do 
not maintain large armies. We recognize the value of 
the smaller States, knowing what they have done for the 
progress of mankind, grateful for the examples set by 
many of them of national heroism and of achievements in 
science, literature, and art. So far from desiring to see 
the smaller peoples absorbed into the larger, as German 
theorists appear to wish, we believe that the world would 
profit if there were in it a greater number of small peoples, 
each developing its own type of character and its own 
forms of thought and art 

When the German armies suddenly crossed the Belgian 
frontier, carrying slaughter and destruction in their 
train, an issue of transcendent importance was raised. 



WHAT ENGLAND STANDS FOR 141 

Can treaties be violated with impunity? Is a nation 
which, trusting to the protection of international justice 
and treaty obligations, has not so armed itself as to be 
able to repel invasion, obliged helplessly to submit to see 
its territory overrun and its towns destroyed? If such 
violence prevails, what sense of security can any small 
nation enjoy? Will it not be the helpless prey of some 
stronger Power whenever that Power finds an interest in 
pouncing upon it? What becomes of the whole fabric of 
international law and international justice? This issue 
was plainly stated by the Chancellor of the German 
Empire when he said in the Reichstag that the entrance 
of German troops upon Belgian soil was "contrary to the 
rules of international law, " and spoke of ''the wrong that 
we are committing. " Belgium was bound by honour to 
resist invasion, because she had solemnly pledged her- 
self to the other Powers to maintain neutrality. It was 
the condition of her creation and her existence. And 
England, obliged by honour to succour Belgium, has 
thus become the champion of international right and of 
the security of the smaller nations. There is nothing 
she more earnestly desires to obtain as a result of this 
war than that the smaller States should be placed for the 
future in a position of safety, in which the guarantees for 
their independence and peace shall be stronger than 
before, because the sanction of the law of nations will 
have been made more effective. 

IV 
England stands for the Regulation of the Methods of 
Warfare in the interests of humanity, and especially for 
the exemption of noncombatants from the sufferings and 
horrors which war brings. Here is another issue raised 
by the present crisis, another conflict of opposing prin- 
ciples. In the ancient world, and among semi-civilized 



142 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

peoples in more recent times, noncombatant civilians as 

120 well as the fighting forces had to bear those sufferings. 
The men were killed, combatants and noncombatants 
alike; the women and children, if spared, were reduced to 
slavery. That is what the Turkish Government — I 
say **the Government" because some good Muslims dis- 

125 approve — have been doing during the last few months in 
Asia Minor and Armenia, on a far larger scale than even 
the massacres perpetrated by Abdul Hamid in 1895-6. 
They are doing it systematically. They are slaughtering 
the men, they are enslaving some of the women by selling 

130 them in open market or seizing them for the harem, and 
driving the rest, with the children, out into deserts to 
perish from hunger. In Trebizond, a few months ago, 
they seized most of the Armenian population of the city, 
of both sexes, put them into sailing vessels, carried them 

135 out to sea, and drowned them all. They are deliberately 
exterminating the whole Christian population, and avow 
this to be their policy, although the Christians had not 
risen against them or given any offence. The Turkish 
Government is, of course, a thoroughly barbarous Gov- 

140 ernment. But in civilized Europe Christian nations have 
during the last few centuries softened the conduct of war 
by agreeing to respect the lives and property of innocent 
noncombatants, and thus, although the scale of modern 
wars has been greater, less misery has been inflicted on 

145 inhabitants of invaded territories. Their sufferings were 
less in the eighteenth century than in the seventeenth, and 
less in the nineteenth than in the eighteenth. In the war 
of 1 870-1 the German troops behaved better in France than 
an invading force had usually behaved in similar circum- 

150 stances. Now, however, in this present war, the German 
military and naval commanders have taken a long step 
backward toward barbarism. Innocent noncombatants 



WHAT ENGLAND STANDS FOR 143 

have been slaughtered by thousands in Belgium and in 
France, and the only excuse offered (for the facts of 
the slaughter are practically admitted) is that German 155 
troops have sometimes been fired at by civilians. Now it 
is true that any civilian who takes up arms without 
observing the rules prescribed for civilian resistance is 
liable to be shot. The rules of war permit that. But 
it is contrary to the rules of war, as well as to common leo 
justice and humanity, to kill a civilian who has not 
sought to harm an invading force. The fact that some 
other civilian belonging to the same town may have fired 
on the invaders does not justify the killing of an innocent 
person. To seize innocent inhabitants, call them "hos- i65 
tages" for the good behaviour of their town, and shoot 
them if the invaders are molested by persons whose 
actions these so-called "hostages" cannot control, is 
murder and nothing else. Yet this is what the Gentian 
commanders have done upon a great scale. 170 

GenPxan air-war has been conducted with equal inhu- 
manity. Bombs are being dropped upon undefended 
towns and quiet country villages, in places where there 
are no troops, no war factories, no stores of ammunition. 
Hardly a combatant has suffered, and the women and 175 
children killed have been far more numerous than the 
male noncombatants. No military advantage has been 
gained by these crimes. They have not even frightened 
the people generally. They have only aroused indigna- 
tion at their purposeless cruelty, and this indignation has is» 
in England stimulated recruiting and strengthened the 
determination to pursue the war to the end. The killing 
of noncombatants by this sort of warfare has been a 
blunder as well as a crime. 

The same retrogression toward barbarism is seen in the m 
German conduct of war at sea. It had long been the 

11 



144 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

rule and practice of civilized nations that when a merchant 
vessel is destroyed by a ship of war because it is impos- 
sible to carry the merchant vessel into the port of the 

190 captor, the crew and the passengers of the vessel should 
be taken off and their lives saved, before the vessel is 
sunk. Common humanity prescribes this, but German 
submarines have been sinking unarmed merchant ves- 
sels and drowning their passengers and crews without 

195 giving them even the opportunity to surrender. They did 
this in the case of the Lusitania, drowning i,ioo inno- 
cent noncombatants, many of them citizens of neutral 
States, and they have since repeatedly perpetrated the 
same crime. The same thing was done quite recently 

200 (apparently by Austria) in the case of the Italian pas- 
senger ship Ancona. This is not war, but murder. 

These facts raise an issue in which the interests of all 
mankind are involved. The German Government claims 
the right to kill the innocent because it suits their military 

205 interests. England denies this right, as all countries 
ought to deny it. She is contending in this war for 
humanity against cruelty, and she appeals to the con- 
science of all the neutral peoples to give her their moral 
support in this contention. Peoples that are now neutral 

210 may suffer in the future, just as those innocent persons 
I have referred to are suffering now, by these acts of 
unprecedented barbarity. 

V 
England stands for a Pacific as opposed to. a Military 
type of civilisation. Her regular army had always been 

215 small in proportion to her population, and very small in 
comparison with the armies of great Continental nations. 
Although she recognizes that there are some countries 
in which universal service may be necessary, and times 
at which it may be necessary in any country, she has 



WHAT ENGLAND STANDS FOR 145 

preferred to leave her people free to follow their civil pur- 22^ 
suits, and had raised her army by voluntary enlistment. 
Military and naval officers have never, as in Germany, 
formed a class by themselves, have never been a political 
power, or exercised political influence. The Cabinet 
Ministers placed in charge of these two services have 225. 
always been civilian statesmen — not Generals or Admi- 
rals — until the outbreak of the present war, when, for 
the first time, under the stress of a new emergency, a 
professional soldier of long experience was placed at the 
head of the War Department. England has repeatedly 230. 
sought at European conferences to bring about a reduction 
of war armaments, as well as to secure improved rules 
mitigating the uses of war; but has found her efforts 
baffled by the opposition of Germany. In none of the 
larger countries, except perhaps in the United States, are 235 
the people so generally and sincerely attached to peace. 
It may be asked why, if this is so, does England main- 
tain so large a navy. The question deserves an answer. 
Her navy is maintained for three reasons. The first is, 
that as her army has been very small she is obliged to 240 
protect herself by a strong home fleet from any risk of 
invasion. She has never forgotten the lesson of the 
Napoleonic wars, when it was the navy that saved her 
from the fate which befell so' many European countries 
at Napoleon's hands. Were she not to keep up this 24& 
first line of defence at sea, a huge army and a huge 
military expenditure in time of peace would be inevitable. 
The second reason is that as England does not produce 
nearly enough food to support her population, she must 
draw supplies from other countries, and would be in 2:.o 
danger of starvation if in war time she lost command of 
the sea. It is, therefore, vital to her existence that she 
should be able to secure unimpeded import of articles of 



146 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

food. And the third reason is that England is responsible 

255 for the defence of the coasts and the commerce of her 
colonies and other foreign possessions, such as India. 
These do not maintain a naval force sufficient for their 
defence, and the mother country is therefore compelled 
to have a fleet sufficient to guarantee their safety and 

260 protect their shipping. No other State has such far- 
reaching liabilities, and, therefore, no other needs a nav}' 
so large as Britain must maintain. In this policy there 
is no warlike or aggressive spirit, no menace to other 
countries. It is a measure purely of defence, costly and 

265 burdensome, but borne because her own safety and that 

of her colonies absolutely require it 

I have sought to describe what I believe to be the 
principles and feelings and aims of the British people as 
a whole. Let me add a few words of a more personal 

270 kind to explain the sentiments of those Englishmen who 
have in time past known and admired the achievements 
of the German people in literature, learning, and science, 
who had desired peace with them, who had been the 
constant advocates of friendship between the two nations. 

275 Such Englishmen, who do not cease to be lovers of peace 
because this war, felt to be righteous, commands their 
hearty support, are just now as determined as any 
others to carry on the war to victory. Why? Because 
to them this war presents itself as a conflict of principles. 

280 On the one side there is the doctrine that the end of the 
State is Power, that Might makes Right, that the State 
is above morality, that war is necessary and even desir- 
able as a factor in progress, that the rights of small 
States must give way to the interests of great States, 

285 that the State may disregard all obligations whether 
undertaken by treaties or prescribed by the common 
sentiment of mankind, and that what is called military 



THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE 147 

necessity justifies every kind of harshness and cruelty 
of war. This is an old doctrine — as old as the sophists 
whom Socrates encountered in Athens. It has in every 
age been held by some ambitious and unscrupulous 
statesmen. Many a Greek tyrant of antiquity, many 
an Italian tyrant of the Middle Ages and the Renais- 
sance, put it in practice. Caesar Borgia is the most 
striking instance in the fifteenth century, Frederick the 
Great in the eighteenth, Napoleon Bonaparte in the 
nineteenth. 

On the other side there is the doctrine that the end of 
the State is Justice, the doctrine that the State is, like 
the individual, subject to a moral law and bound in honor 
to observe its promises, that nations owe duties to one 
another and to mankind at large, that they have all more 
to gain by peace than by strife, that national hatreds 
are deadly things, condemned b}^ philosophy and by 
Christianity. In the victory of one or the other of these 
principles the future of mankind seems to us to be at 
stake. 



THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE 

RENE VIVIANI 

[When the United States entered the war, a French commission 
headed by M. Viviani and Marshal Joffre, the hero of the Marne, 
came to this country. Since Lafayette's visit, a hundred years 
ago, there has been no such enthusiastic welcome as they received. 
Everywhere great crowds hung upon the words of France's great 
orator and greeted tumultuously every appearance of the white- 
haired Marshal. The address chosen for use here was delivered at 
the Auditorium, in Chicago, May 4, 1917. It is not a reasoned 
attempt to defend the position of France. It is rather an expres- 
sion of the France that is behind mere outward events — the spirit 
of France "fighting for right and truth and justice." And the 
orator was also expressing the sense of his hearers that the spirit of 
France and America was the same spirit answering "the call of 
democracy all the world over. "] 



148 THE WORLD AXD DEMOCRACY 

. . . WTiat constitutes her greatness in the world is 
that she has not only labored and suffered for herself, 
but that throughout her long history* her eyes have been 
fixed on all mankind: it is to all mankind her thoughts 
have ever gone. She it was that accomplished the French 
Revolution and who, through that Revolution, has 
enlightened the whole world; she it is who in the nine- 
teenth century educated the other peoples in her ideals, 
and held in her grasp the banner of emancipation toward 

I which from all comers of the earth the oppressed look 
longingly. And if, in 1S71, by a decree of fate, her glory 

• seemed to suffer eclipse, if she has kno^^^l defeat, after 
defeat she has sought and found fresh vigour in the 
labours of peace. She had forgotten nothing; she gazed 

I u-ith broken heart and streaming eyes at her violated 
frontier, at Alsace-Lorraine, which shall be ours once 
more to-morrow, not by conquest, but by right, because 
it is ours, and shall be by right restored to us. 

And meanwhile she gathered fresh strength; she rose 

I once more in the esteem of all nations; she was so pro- 
foundly attached to peace that she sent the children who 
might have defended her away to colonize other lands. 
And yet for ten years she has been systematically brow- 
beaten and blackmailed. First came Tangier, then 
Casablanca, then Agadir. By turns she was hectored 
and insulted, and yet remained pacific and unmoved, 
until in 19 14 she was smmnoned to break her wxitten 
treaties, bow her head, humiliate her national honour. 
But no country can be asked to despise itself. The 
supreme end of life is not peace ; it is honour for men, and 
for nations their independence. 

And then what a spectacle did France oft'er the world! 
Oh. doubtless German slanders had represented her as 
corrupt and dissolute : it was a mere jest to march against 



THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE 149 

SO frivolous a nation which would capitulate at the first 
shock of battle. Germany dreamt that in a few hours, a 
few days at most, the souls of Frenchmen and the power 
of France would be beaten to the ground. And because 
they had come to study France in certain haunts of 
amusement where Frenchmen were never seen; because 
they knew not the real France, the France of our fac- 
tories, the France of our soil, the France of intellectual 
labour; because, even through this transparent veil, 
the true France was hidden from them, they wantonly 
entered into this war with full assurance conquest would 
be a matter of a few months, and victory secured. 

And then what did you see? However far removed 
you may be in distance from our land, it is not possible 
that so admirable a spectacle, the greatest France has 
ever given, should not have been revealed to all your 
eyes. Frenchmen divided into hostile groups, and 
political sets forever at war. Frenchmen who were said 
never to be able to agree, to a man rose under the Flag 
of France; as children who have quarreled erstwhile at 
once answer the call of their mother, all the children of 
France answered the call of their country. 

From you we have nothing to conceal. The first shock 
was a fearful one. Oh, do not think that in all history a 
single people ever remained more resolute and dauntless 
under the tempest of steel and fire that was unchained 
against us. We stood undaunted : but our hearts felt the 
impact of an avalanche of two millions of men. The 
German machine was well organized: for forty years no 
cog was lacking in it; and in that machine that knew not 
the rule of the individual, in which a man counted for 
nothing, in which the machine was all, in that machine 
all was ready. And you know what happened. Serbia 
trampled under foot, murdered, simply because it was 



150 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

weak; Belgium summoned to throw open her frontiers 
to her invader and refusing, hurling herself in spite of 
her material weakness, in the full splendour of moral 
greatness and strength, because she would leave no stain 
on the pages of her history, offering up the blood of her 
children to save her honour. And England, unshakable 
as we were, because she would not betray her faith, 
she also rose with us. But in the early days of the 
campaign we, the children of France, almost alone bore 
the onset of the avalanche. We do not pretend not to 
have yielded physically for a short space — yes, ever fight- 
ing, struggling against overwhelming odds, scattering the 
corpses of our sons on the roads we retreated along, we 
retreated tactically until the day when, under my premier- 
ship, the Marshal, who was then a general only, warned 
us, as early as the 23d of August, that his battle plan was 
fixed, and that he had communicated it to his generals: 
until the fourth of September (and by one of those happy 
coincidences of history that date was the birthday of the 
Third Republic)*; when our troops received the order to 
march forward, to march forward against the enemy, the 
invaders of our territory. And then our poor soldiers, 
worn out by twenty consecutive days and nights of fight- 
ing, exhausted, without sleep, without proper food, after 
fighting day and night for all that period, answered the 
call of their chief ; they rallied to his call and with smiling 
lips and radiant eyes along the fighting line, to the sound 
of the drum and clarion, marched against the enemy; 
and in the space of a few days fifty kilometers of French 
territory were freed. 

Perhaps the details of that great historic battle are not 
familiar to you; they were concealed from you; the Ger- 
mans kept them to themselves, so long as it was possible 
to conceal them from the rest of the world. But the power 



THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE 151 

of truth is too great; it is impossible that that glorious 
battle, the greatest France ever fought, should be all 
unknown to you. In that battle we remained faithful to 105 
the mission of France. And do you know why the soldiers 
of the Mame fought as they did? It is because they were 
the soldiers of a democratic army, in which the most 
capable man can climb to the top of the hierarchy, in 
which the highest officers are the friends and comrades of no 
their soldiers. And if they fought thus, it was, let me 
tell you, because all the history of France was behind 
them, and was familiar to them, because they were the 
descendants of the soldiers of Valmy who under the 
French Revolution had already saved France and the 115 
liberty of the world; because they were also the descend- 
ants of Charles Martel's soldiers who in the Plains of 
Poitiers stayed the avalanche of the Barbarians, and thus 
fulfilled the historic mission of France. 

And they vanquished. And then you came to us; you 120 
came to us from the first. And I seek in vain words to 
tell our infinite gratitude for the moral support you gave 
us. You came to us with full hearts, smiling. I still see 
in my mind's eye, in the Paris ambulances, and in the 
ambulances on the front, those American women who bent 125 
over the beds of our dying men and calmed the anguish 
of their livid brows by the sweetness of their beauty. I 
see your doctors hastening at the call of our doctors to 
shower their benefits, without reward, on the sufferings of 
our wounded. I yet hear the orphans of France appealing 130 
to the Government of the Republic to thank the Ameri- 
cans who showered kindness on their poor, fair, young 

heads, their innocent heads You came to us! 

Why? In the first place, why did you come with full 
hands to bring all these benefits to our country? Moved 135 
by your kind hearts, undoubtedly. But let me say that, 



152 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

however glowing were your hearts, that was not the only 
reason. It was not possible, even when you were chained 
down to the duties of neutrality, that your reason should 

140 not speak, and that your approval of France's cause 
should not arise from your outraged consciences. It was 
not possible you should not recognize the justice of our 
cause, not see that France was not only fighting to defend 
its right, but to defend those of all peoples, the liberty 

145 of man. And all this was clearly manifest when under 
the guidance of your illustrious President you entered 
this war. 

. . . Doubtless, like ourselves, you entered this war 
under the sting of German insults, in order that the 

150 honour of the nation formed by Washington should suffer 
no humiliation, in order to avenge your dead and dying, 
the children and the women murdered on the desolate, 
bleak, high seas, at night, in winter, by the criminal hands 
of those we are fighting against together. You went into 

155 this war for that. But not for that alone. Was it pos- 
sible for you to see through the immense distances that 
separate us the frightful spectacle which unchained 
Europe shows? Possible to see all the blood spilt; so 
many martyrs falling in a sacred cause? Possible to . 

160 count the thousands of dead, wounded, and sick; possible 
to count the mourning women whose pride and sorrow are 
hidden under their black veils; possible to count one by 
one all our orphans; possible to contemplate such sights 
without deep emotion and a revolt of your souls ; possible 

165 to see the Marne, the Yser, the Somme, Verdun, where a 
fraction of the French* Army held back a million men; 
and see, from far away, the lightnings of the tremendous 
battle rise above the immortal city to form the luminous 
beacon-light which illuminates the whole world: was it 

170 possible, I say, to see all this and not feel your hearts 



THE SPIRIT OF FRANCE 153 

thrill and burn ? No;it was not possible. And for months 
I have been saying to myself that it was not possible. 
When French democracy, which made the French Revolu- 
tion, which gave directing thoughts to all Europe, which 
long ago sent its flags, its generals, and its soldiers 175 
to fight for independence — when that democracy was 
struggling for its life, could you stand aloof? No; that 
was the one thing impossible. 

No. You understand the deeper meaning of this war. 
The allied peoples are not fighting for territories; they iso 
are not fighting to satisfy some morbid ambition! No. 
The stake is a greater one; it is the fate of the whole 
world we now bear in our hands. In them is the fate of 
free men, of democracy. And it is because you felt that 
this contest between democracy and autocracy must be m 
fought to its bitter end ; it is because you felt that so long 
as the peoples do not possess, as you and we do, govern- 
ing assemblies, responsible governments, war might 
again be let loose; because you felt that, so long as there 
are forces of aggression in the world, no democracy can 190 
live in peace, that you rallied to our side at the call of your 
President and the call of democracy all the world over. 

Come to us then; come as brothers to the fight we are 
fighting for right and truth and justice. But remember 
well that out of this war must come the great lesson it 195 
holds. I have already said it is an empty and deadly 
dream for democracies to imagine they can live under 
purely ideal conditions and that they are threatened by 
no evil or perverse powers. If the democracies do not 
arm themselves for their defense; if they do not possess 200 
free men ready to seize the sword, not for conquest, but 
for the defense of their native land, sooner or later the 
imperial eagle will swoop down on them at an hour when 
it will be too late to organize resistance. 



154 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

205 Consider our example. We are a people of forty mil- 
lions of men. What are forty millions in comparison with 
the one hundred millions of the American people? But 
we were organized; but we had a national force; but 
we had officers, generals; but we had a chief; all was 

210 ready, so far at least as any democracy can be ready ; and 
notwithstanding, by a fatality, for some days it seemed as 
if we might be annihilated. Therefore, let democracies 
arm in their own defense so long as in the wide world there 
remains a threatening autocracy. But it shall not long 

215 threaten. It is not to be believed that with all our coa- 
lized forces we cannot crush an autocracy at which we 
have in these last years struck such powerful blows; it is 
not possible that the absolute monarchs who, in the 
Central Empires, by their bloody whims dispose of the 

220 destinies of the world should be allowed to continue. 
We will reach them; we will carry to their ears the cry 
of oppressed peoples; we shall declare that it is unthink- 
able that the strong should forever oppress the weak; 
we shall exact peace for all, liberty for all, equality 

225 for all. 

And when we have won the victory of democracy, when 
as a free people we have brought our labours to full con- 
summation, then all our thoughts will turn to the victims 
of this war. Together we will go to lay the palms of 

230 justice on the tomb of our children; and you in your 
pilgrimage will repair to Mount Vernon to ask the great 
soul of Washington, Founder of the Republic, Father of 
your country, Have we done well in doing this? Are you 
well pleased with your children? Have they rightly 

235 understood the glorious tradition you inscribed on our 
flag? 

And, rest assured, his great shade will rise to thank 
you and to bless you. 



PRO P ATRIA 155 

PRO PATRIA 

MAURICE MAETERLINCK 

[This wonderful and deserved tribute to Belgium is a portion of 
an address delivered in Milan, Italy, in November, 19 14. Its 
author is one of the greatest of living prose writers and dramatists. 
The magic of language is his. The glorious spirit of Belgium shines 
forth as a halo around the figure of her young king. How a great 
nation like Germany could ever have made the stupid blunder 
by which she affronted the moral sense of the whole world will 
always remain a thing to wonder at. "I loved Germany," says 
Maeterlinck sadly, "and numbered friends there, who now, dead or 
living, are alike dead to me. I thought her great and upright 
and generous; and to me she was ever kindly and hospitable. But 
there are crimes that obliterate the past and close the future. In 
rejecting hatred I should have shown myself a traitor to love. "] 

I 

I need not here recall the events that hurled Belgium 
into the depths of distress most glorious where she is 
struggling to-day. She has been punished as never 
nation was punished for doing her duty as never nation 
did before. She saved the world while knowing that she 
could not be saved. She saved it by flinging herself in 
the path of the oncoming barbarians, by allowing herself 
to be trampled to death in order to give the defenders of 
justice time, not to rescue her, for she was well aware that 
rescue could not come in time, but to collect the forces 
needed to save our Latin civilization from the greatest 
danger that has ever threatened it. She has thus done 
this civilization, which is the only one whereunder the 
majority of men are willing or able to live, a service 
exactly similar to that which Greece, at the time of the 
great Asiatic invasions, rendered to the mother of this 
civilization. But, while the service is similar, the act 
surpasses all comparison. We may ransack history in 
vain for aught to approach it in grandeur. The mag- 
nificent sacrifice at Thermopylae, which is perhaps the 

Copyright 1916, by Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc. 



156 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

noblest action in the annals of war, is illumined with an 
equally heroic but less ideal light, for it was less dis- 
interested and more material. Leonidas and his three 
hundred Spartans were in fact defending their homes, 
their wives, their children, all the realities which they 
had left behind them. King Albert and his Belgians, on 
the other hand, knew full well that, in barring the 
invader's road, they were inevitably sacrificing their 
homes, their wives, and their children. Unlike the 
heroes of Sparta, instead of possessing an imperative and 
vital interest in fighting, they had everything to gain by 
not fighting and nothing to lose — save honour. In the 
one scale were fire and the sword, ruin, massacre, the 
infinite disaster which we see; in the other was that little 
word honour, which also represents infinite things, but 
things which we do not see, or which we must be very 
pure and very great to see quite clearly. It has happened 
now and again in history that a man standing higher than 
his fellows perceives what this word represents and 
sacrifices his life and the life of those whom he loves to 
what he perceives; and we have not without reason 
devoted to such men a sort of cult that places them 
almost on a level with the gods. But what had never yet 
happened — and I say this without fear of contradiction 
from whosoever cares to search the memory of man — is 
that a whole people, great and small, rich and poor, 
learned and ignorant, deliberately immolated itself thus 
for the sake of an unseen thing. 

II 
And observe that we are not discussing one of those 
heroic resolutions which are taken in a moment of enthu- 
siasm, when man easily surpasses himself, and which 
have not to be maintained every morning, for now 
nearly four months, in the midst of daily increasing dis- 



PRO PATRIA 157 

tress and disaster. And not only has this resolution not 
wavered by a hair's breadth, but it grows as steadily as 
the national misfortune; and to-day, when this mis- 
fortune is reaching its full, the national resolution is 
likewise attaining its zenith. I have seen many of my 
refugee fellow countrymen ; some used to be rich and had 
lost their all; others were poor before the war and now 
no longer owned even what the poorest own. I have 
received many letters from every part of Europe where 
duty's exiles had sought a brief instant of repose. In 
them there vv^as lamentation, as was only too natural, 
but not a reproach, not a regret, not a word of recrimina- 
tion. I did not once come upon that hopeless but 
excusable cry which, one would think, might so easily 
have sprung from despairing lips: "If our king had not 
done what he did, we should not be suffering what we are 
suffering to-day." 

The idea does not even occur to them. It is as though 
this thought were not of those which can live in that 
atmosphere purified by misfortune. They are not 
resigned, for to be resigned means to renounce the strife, 
no longer to keep up one's courage. They are proud and 
happy in their distress. They have a vague feeling that 
this distress will regenerate them after the manner of bap- 
tism of faith and glory and ennoble them for all time in 
the remembrance of men. An unexpected breath, com- 
ing from the sacred reserves of the human race and from 
the summits of the human heart, has suddenly passed 
over their lives and given them a single soul, formed of 
the same heroic substance as that of their great king. 

Ill 

They have done what had never before been done ; and 
it is to be hoped for the happiness of mankind that no 
nation will ever again be called upon for a like sacrifice. 



158 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

But this wonderful example will not be lost, even though 
there be no longer any occasion to imitate it. At a time 
when the universal conscience seemed about to bend 

90 under the weight of long prosperity and selfish material- 
ism, suddenly it raised by several degrees what we may 
term the political morality of the world and lifted it all 
at once to a height which it had not yet reached and from 
which it will never again be able to descend, for there are 

95 actions so glorious, actions which fill so great a place in 
our memory, that they found a sort of new religion and 
definitely fix the limits of the human conscience and of 
human loyalty and courage. 

They have really, as I have already said and as history 

100 will one day establish with greater eloquence and author- 
ity than mine, they have really saved Latin civilization. 
They had stood for centuries at the junction of two 
powerful and hostile forms of culture. They had to 
choose and they did not hesitate. Their choice was all 

105 the more significant, all the more instructive, inasmuch 
as none was so well qualified as they to choose with a full 
knowledge of what they were doing. You are all aware 
that more' than half of Belgium is of Teutonic stock. 
She was therefore, thanks to her racial affinities, better 

no able than any other to understand the culture that was 
being offered her, together with the imputation of dis- 
honour which it included. She understood it so well 
that she rejected it with an outbreak of horror and dis- 
gust unparalleled in violence, spontaneous, unanimous, 

115 and irresistible, thus pronouncing a verdict from which 
there was no appeal and giving the world a peremptory 
lesson sealed with every drop of her blood. 



BELGIAN PRIDE 159 

BELGIAN PRIDE 

EMILE VERHAEREN 

[The most impassioned utterance that came from Belgium in the 
early stages of the war was written by the noted Flemish poet Ver- 
haeren. He had long been recognized as one of the chief spokesmen 
in literature of the newer Belgium. His poetry, mainly of the kind 
called symbolistic, had never been popular in the sense of being 
widely read by the ordinary people of affairs. Perhaps most people 
heard of him for the first time in connection with the fiery expression 
of Belgian spirit in his book called Belgium's Agony, from which our 
chapter is taken. A refugee from the land he loved so well, Ver- 
haeren met his death in a railway accident in France, in November, 
19 1 6, at the age of sixty-one. One can only speculate on the book 
he might have written had he lived to see his country restored to its 
place among the peoples of the world — a symbol for all time of what 
honor means in the life of nations.] 

It is the duty of Belgians to-day, however terrible 
their misfortunes have been, not to sink to mere com- 
plaining nor to dwell on their misery, but to prove them- 
selves worthy of their soldiers, who have been, one and 
all, heroes. 

The lamentations of women driven from their homes, 
forced to tread the highways of famine, flight, and exile, 
their children clinging to their skirts, are justified and 
truly pitiable. But it is not fitting that men, especially 
men who can think and act, should echo these cries, 
already somewhat over-prolonged. 

In times before the war, those of us who dreamed of a 
greater Belgium had no visions of territorial expansion 
in Europe, nor of a colonial empire in Africa. What we 
pictured was a rebirth of Belgium, a rebirth essentially of 
the mind and spirit. We pictured certainly an ever- 
growing activity of trade and industry, but our desire 
was even more for a greater modernity and vitality of 
thought. We sought for Belgium the power of influence 
rather than of conquest. 

And now we see the influence of Belgiimi stronger 



12 



i6o THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

than it has ever been. It is true that for the moment 
our factories are silent, apparently deprived of the pant- 
ing breath which is their life. But no one really thinks 
them dead. As soon as the war is over they will spring 
to life again, the wonderful monsters that they were 
before. The weight of dust and ashes that now covers 
them will be a light burden to their thousands of tentacles, 
when once again they spring, in their twisted energy, to 
the light of day. 

As ever, we Belgians shall be young and keen. Until 
to-day our nation has known no danger. We were too 
sure of the morrow. We lived like rich people who had 
no knowledge of want. War, we thought, was the busi- 
ness of others. 

But war has come upon us, fierce and terrible, when 
least we expected it. Like a great mountain, crashing 
downward, the empire of William Hohenzollern has 
overwhelmed us. We were alone; we were few. We 
were attacked with treachery and lies. Into the old 
forts of Liege we threw ourselves in desperate haste. We 
had, as it were, to invent courage and resource for our- 
selves; we had to manufacture a tragic spirit of resistance. 
All that we did in a day, an hour, a moment. And in 
that moment we won the admiration of the world. 

Oh, what unforgettable impromptus were that courage 
and that glory! Some of us, seeing the little bands of 
men leaving for the frontier, could not but doubt. ' * They 
will be but fodder for cannon. We have no army, no 
generals, no fortresses." 

And four days later a name, unknown a few hours ago, 
was in every mouth. The boys in the streets dressed up 
as General Leman. Girls sold his portrait in every town. 
The personality of a true General had stamped itself upon 
the mind of everyone. Nor was this all. The same little 



BELGIAN PRIDE i6i 

bands of soldiers, whom we had pitied as destined only to 
feed the hostile cannon, came to Brussels, their hands 
full of Prussian sabres, at once timid and triumphant, 
still unconvinced of the great part they had just played. 
The women kissed them; the men carried them in triumph. 

One of them, when a ''Taube" hovered threateningly 
over Brussels, thrust into the air a Prussian eagle, torn 
from some German helmet, and, with a laugh of mocking 
rage, taunted the aviator to come down and fetch it. 
Splendid moments, alive with all the fever of pride! 
The weather was brilliant, the very air seemed golden. 
One breathed in heroism with the sunlight. 

These early triumphs of Liege, and those that followed 
at Haelen and the Yser, have won for Belgium the eternal 
honour, respect, and admiration of all. For three months 
we have held the vast German armies in our country; the 
armies that allotted to us three days. With the most 
convincing arguments of all we have challenged the 
dogma of their invincibility. We have caused them 
their first losses. Like moving blocks, the men thrust 
elbow to elbow against each other, they advanced towards 
the glacis of our forts. Before giving the actual assault, 
together they shouted — "Kaiser!" "Kaiser!" And 
the Belgian guns answered them. They fell, row upon 
row, like dominoes. Sometimes the swift flashlight of a 
cruising airship lit up their agony. A great murmuring 
groan spread along the lines, died away and gave place 
to the silence of death. 

The force of our resistance gave time to France and to 
England to arm themselves, to perfect their organiza- 
tion, but it is not for us to harp on this. More important 
still is what lies behind. 

Our handful of soldiers at Liege and at Haelen repre- 
sented, unconsciously of course, a great past of cultured 



i62 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

90 civilization. If the French-speaking race is the incarna- 
tion of both Greece and Rome, we can assert that these 
soldiers of ours defended and upheld their inherited 
traditions, at the moment when they were most seriously 
threatened. That is why this simple act of courage is so 

95 great. We need not dread comparing their exploit to the 
deeds at Thermopylae. At Li^ge, as in Sparta, a hand- 
ful of men saved the world. 

With the memory of this supreme service rendered to 
Western civilization in our minds, we should have no 

100 feeling but pride. Tears dishonour us. Let us rather be 
thankful that Belgium, of all the countries, was chosen to 
do this wonderful deed, was privileged to be the first and 
the most vital rampart of modern civilization against 
savagery and brutal aggression, and that in future her 

105 name will be joined to those few small nations whose 
fame is immortal. Let us further rejoice that in these 
tremendous days our people have lived with an intensity 
that makes all our past existence as a nation seem value- 
less in comparison. It seems that before this sudden 

110 baptism of fire we were hardly a nation at all. We 
frittered away our strength in petty squabbles; we 
argued over words instead of facts ; we blamed each other 
for being Walloon or Flemish; we busied ourselves as 
lawyers, business men, officials, instead of striving before 

115 all to be proud and free citizens of one State. Danger 
rather than safety has been our cure. We have dis- 
covered ourselves. So strong is the union, so tenacious 
the bonds of a common resistance that now bind us 
together, that to many minds Belgium dates only from 

120 yesterday, and has never felt herself so real, so living as 
when, deprived of her land, she has, as rallying point for 
her national consciousness, only her King. 



BRITAIN'S WAR AIMS 163 

BRITAIN'S WAR AIMS 

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 

[The present Prime Minister was one of Great Britain's most 
noted statesmen long before the beginning of the war. As Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer he was responsible for many new depar- 
tures in taxation and finance. As Minister of Munitions and as 
Secretary of State for War he had much to do with making Eng- 
land's new armies. He is essentially a man of the people. His 
buoyant hopefulness and faith in the common folk have enabled 
him to handle most difficult situations. His magnetic power has a 
speaker is remarkable. Our selection is the speech laying down 
the peace terms of the British Government. Early in 19 18 it was 
clear to the allied nations that they must put forth every effort to 
bring their power to a maximum for the great campaigns that have 
now happily ended the war. To do their part the English Govern- 
ment planned to mobilize 100,000 more men for the shipyards and 
500,000 more for military service. That meant an extensive 
readjustment in labor arrangements. The trade unions demanded 
a clear statement of just what the war aims of the Government 
were before they should give their approval to the plan. A trade 
union conference on man power met in London, and on January 5 
the Ppme Minister spoke on behalf of the Government. The 
delegates agreed that the statement of war aims was satisfactory, 
and the plan proposed was carried through.] 

When the Government invite organized labor in this 
country to assist them to maintain the might of their 
armies in the field, its representatives are entitled to ask 
that any misgivings and doubts which any of them may 
have about the purpose to which this precious strength 
is to be applied should be definitely cleared. And what 
is true of organized labor is equally true of all citizens in 
this country, without regard to grade or avocation. 

When men by the million are being called upon to 
suffer and die, and vast populations are being subjected 
to sufferings and privations on a scale unprecedented 
in the history of the world, they are entitled to know 
for w^hat cause or causes they are making the sacrifice. 

It is only the clearest, greatest, and justest of causes 
that can justify the continuance, even for one day, of 



i64 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

this unspeakable agony of the nation, and we ought to 
be able to state clearly and definitely not only the prin- 
ciples for which we are fighting, but also their definite 
and concrete application to the war map of the world. 

We have arrived at the most critical hour in this 
terrible conflict, and before any Government takes a 
fateful decision as to the conditions under which it 
ought either to terminate or to continue the struggle, it 
ought to be satisfied that the conscience of the nation is 
behind these conditions, for nothing else can sustain the 
effort which is necessary to achieve a righteous end to 
this war. 

I have, therefore, during the last few days taken 
special pains to ascertain the view and attitude of repre- 
sentative men of all sections of thought and opinion in 
the country. 

Last week I had the privilege not merely of perusing 
the declared war aims of the Labor Party, but also of 
discussing in detail with labor leaders the meaning and 
intention of that declaration. 

I have also had opportunity of discussing this same 
momentous question with Mr. Asquith and Viscount 
Grey. Had it not been that the Nationalist leaders are 
in Ireland engaged in endeavoring to solve the tangled 
problem of Irish self-government, I should have been 
happy to exchange views with them, but Mr. Redmond, 
speaking on their behalf, has, with his usual lucidity and 
force, in many of his speeches made clear what his ideas 
are as to the object and purposes of the war. I have also 
had an opportunity of consulting certain representatives 
of the great dominions overseas. 

I am glad to be able to say, as a result of all these 
discussions, that, although the Government are alone 
responsible for the actual language I purpose using, 



BRITAIN'S WAR AIMS 165 

there is a national agreement as to the character and 
purpose of our war aims and peace conditions, and in 
what I say to you to-day, and through you to the world, 
I can venture to claim that I am speaking not merely 
the mind of the Government, but of the nation and of 
the empire as a whole. 

We may begin by clearing away some misunderstand- 
ings and stating what we are not fighting for. 

We are not fighting a war of aggression against the 
German people. Their leaders have persuaded them 
that they are fighting a war of self-defense against a 
league of rival nations, bent on the destruction of Ger- 
many. That is not so. The destruction or disruption 
of Germany or the German people has never been a war 
aim with us from the first day of this war to this day. 

Most reluctantly, and indeed quite unprepared for the 
dreadful ordeal, we were forced to join in this war, in 
self-defense of the violated public law of Europe and in 
vindication of the most solemn treaty obligations on 
which the public system of Europe rested and on which 
Germany had ruthlessly trampled in her invasion of 
Belgium. We had to join in the struggle or stand aside 
and see Europe go under and brute force triumph over 
public right and international justice. 

It was only the realization of that dreadful alternative 
that forced the British people into the war, and from that 
original attitude they have never swerved. They have 
never aimed at a break-up of the German people or the 
disintegration of their State or country. Germany has 
occupied a great position in the world. It is not our 
wish or intention to question or destroy that position for 
the future, but rather to turn her aside from hopes and 
schemes of military domination. 

Nor did we enter this war merely to alter or destroy 



1 66 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

the imperial Constitution of Germany, much as we con- 

85 sider that miUtary and autocratic Constitution a danger- 
ous anachronism in the twentieth century. Our point 
of view is that the adoption of a really democratic Con- 
stitution by Germany would be the most convincing 
evidence that her old spirit of military domination has, 

90 indeed, died in this war and would make it much easier 

for us to conclude a broad, democratic peace with her. 

But that is a question for the German people to decide. 

We are not fighting to destroy Austria-Hungary or to 

deprive Turkey of its capital or the rich lands of Asia 

95 Minor and Thrace which are predominantly Turkish. 

It is now more than a year since the President of the 
United States, then neutral, addressed to the belligerents 
a suggestion that each side should state clearly the aims 
for which they were fighting. 

100 We and our allies responded by the note of January 
lo, 191 7. To the President's appeal the Central Empires 
made no reply, and in spite of many adjurations, both 
from their opponents and from neutrals, they have main- 
tained complete silence as to the objects for which they 

105 were fighting. Even on so crucial a matter as their 
intention with regard to Belgium they have uniformly 
declined to give any trustworthy indication. 

On December 25 last, however. Count Czernin, speak- 
ing on behalf of Austria-Hungary and her allies, did 

110 make a pronouncement of a kind. It is, indeed, deplor- 
ably vague. 

We are told that it is not the intention of the Central 
Powers to appropriate forcibly any occupied territory or 
to rob of its independence any nation which has lost its 

115 political independence during the war. 

It is obvious that almost any scheme of conquest 
and annexation could be perpetrated within the literal 



BRITAIN'S WAR AIMS 167 

interpretation of such a pledge. Does it mean that 
Belgium, Serbia, Montenegro, and Rumania will be as 
independent and as free to direct their own destinies as 120 
Germany or any other nation? Or does it mean that all 
manner of interferences and restrictions, political and 
economical, incompatible with the status and dignity 
of free and self-respecting people, are to be imposed? 
If this is the intention, then there will be one kind of 125 
independence for the great nation and an inferior kind 
of independence for the small nation. 

We must know what is meant, for equality of right 
among the nations, small as well as great, is one of the 
fundamental issues this country and her allies are fight- 130 
ing to establish in this war. 

Reparation for the wanton damage inflicted on 
Belgian towns and villages and their inhabitants is 
emphatically repudiated. The rest of the so-called offer of 
the Central Powers is almost entirely a refusal of all con- 135 
cessions. All suggestions about the autonomy of subject 
nationalities are ruled out of the peace terms altogether. 
The question whether any form of self-government 
is to be given to the Arabs, Armenians, or Syrians is 
declared to be entirely a matter for the Sublime Porte, m 
A pious wish for the protection of minorities, "in so far 
as it is practically realizable," is the nearest approach to 
liberty which the Central statesmen venture to make. 

On one point only are they perfectly clear and definite. 
Under no circumstances will the German demand for 145 
the restoration of the whole of Germany's colonies be 
departed from. All principles of self-determination, or, 
as our earlier phrase goes, government by the consent of 
the governed, here vanish into thin air. 

It is impossible to believe that any edifice of per- 150 
manent peace could be erected on such a foundation as 



l68 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

this. Mere lip-service to the formula of no annexations 
and no indemnities or the right of self-determination is 
useless. Before any negotiations can even be begun the 

155 Central Powers must realize the essential facts of the 
situation. 

The days of the Treaty of Vienna are long past. We 
can no longer submit the future of European civilization 
to the arbitrary decisions of a few negotiators trying to 

160 secure by chicanery or persuasion the interests of this or 
that dynasty or nation. 

The settlement of the new Europe must be based on 
such grounds of reason and justice as will give some 
promise of stability. Therefore it is that we feel that 

1C5 government with the consent of the governed must be 
the basis of any territorial settlement in this war. For 
that reason, also, unless treaties be upheld, unless every 
nation is prepared, at whatever sacrifices, to honor the 
national signature, it is obvious that no treaty of peace 

170 can be worth the paper on which it is written. 

The first requirement, therefore, always put forward 
by the British Government and their allies, has been the 
complete restoration, political, territorial, and economic, 
of the independence of Belgium, and such reparation 

175 as can be made for the devastation of its towns and 
provinces. 

This is no demand for a war indemnity, such as that 
imposed on France by Germany in 187 1. It is not an 
attempt to shift the cost of warlike operations from one 

180 belligerent to another, which may or may not be defen- 
sible. It is no more and no less than an insistence that 
before there can be any hope for stable peace, this great 
breach of the public law of Europe must be repudiated 
and so far as possible repaired. 

185 Reparation means recognition. Unless international 



BRITAIN'S WAR AIMS 169 

rij^ht is recognized by insistence on payment for injury, 
done in defiance of its canons, it can never be a reality. 

Next comes the restoration of Serbia, Montenegro, 
and the occupied parts of France, Italy, and Rumania. 
The complete withdrawal of the allied [Teutonic] armies, i9o 
and the reparation for injustice done is a fundamental 
condition of permanent peace. 

We mean to stand by the French democracy to the 
death in the demand it makes for a reconsideration of the 
great wrong of 187 1, when, without regard to the wishes 195 
of the population, two provinces were torn from the 
side of France and incorporated in the German Empire. 

This sore has poisoned the peace of Europe for half a 
century, and until it is cured, healthful conditions will 
not have been restored. There can be no better illustra- 200 
tion of the folly and wickedness of using a transient 
military success to violate national right. 

I will not attempt to deal with the Russian territories 
now in German occupation. The Russian policy since 
the revolution has passed so rapidly through so many 205 
phases that it is difficult to speak without some suspen- 
sion of judgment as to what the situation will be when 
the final terms of European peace come to be discussed. 

Russia accepted war with all its horrors because, true 
to her traditional guardianship of the weaker communi- 210 
ties of her race, she stepped in to protect Serbia from a 
plot against her independence. It is this honorable sacri- 
fice which not merely brought Russia into the war, but 
France as well. 

France, true to the conditions of her treaty with 215 
Russia, stood by her ally in a quarrel which was not her 
own. Her chivalrous respect for her treaty led to the 
wanton invasion of Belgium, and the treaty obligations of 
Great Britain to that little land brought us into the war. 



I70 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

220 The present rulers of Russia are now engaged, with- 
out any reference to the countries whom Russia brought 
into the war, in separate negotiations with their common 
enemy. I am indulging in no reproaches. I am merely 
stating the facts with a view to making it clear why 

225 Great Britain cannot be held accountable for decisions 
taken in her absence and concerning which she has not 
been consulted or her aid invoked. 

No one who knows Prussia and her designs upon Russia 
can for a mom^ent doubt her ultimate intention. What- 

230 ever phrases she may use to delude Russia, she does not 
mean to surrender one of the fair provinces or cities of 
Russia now occupied by her forces. Under one name or 
another (and the name hardly matters) those Russian 
provinces will henceforth be in reality a part of the 

235 dominions of Prussia. They will be ruled by the Prus- 
sian sword in the interests of the Prussian autocracy, 
and the rest of the people of Russia will be partly enticed 
by specious phrases and partly bullied by the threat of 
continued war against an impotent army into a condition 

240 of complete economic and ultimate political enslavement 
to Germany. 

We all deplore the prospect. The democracy of this 
country means to stand to the last by the democracies 
of France and Italy and all our other allies. We shall 

245 be proud to stand side by side by the new democracy of 
Russia. So will America and so will France and Italy. 
But if the present rulers of Russia take action which is 
independent of their allies, we have no means of inter- 
vening to arrest the catastrophe which is assuredly 

250 befalling their country. Russia can only be saved by 
her own people. 

We believe, however, that an independent Poland, 
comprising all those genuinely Polish elements who 



BRITAIN'S WAR AIMS 171 

desire to form a part of it, is an urgent necessity for the 
stability of Western Europe. 255 

Similarly, though we agree with President Wilson that 
a break-up of Austria-Hungary is no part of our war 
aims, we feel that unless genuine self-government on 
true democratic principles is granted to those Austro- 
Hungarian nationalities who have long desired it, it is 260 
impossible to hope for a removal of those causes of 
unrest in that part of Europe which have so long threat- 
ened the general peace. 

On the same grounds we regard as vital the satisfac- 
tion of the legitimate claims of the Italians for union 265 
with those of their own race and tongue. We also mean 
to press that justice be done to the men of Rumanian 
blood and speech in their legitimate aspirations. If 
these conditions are fulfilled, Austria-Hungary would 
become a power whose strength would conduce to the 270 
permanent peace and freedom of Europe instead of 
being merely an instrument to the pernicious military 
autocracy of Prussia that uses the resources of its allies 
for the furtherance of its own sinister purposes. 

Outside of Europe we believe that the same principles 275 
should be applied. While we do not challenge the 
maintenance of the Turkish Empire in the homelands 
of the Turkish race with its capital at Constantinople, 
the passage between the Mediterranean and the Black 
Sea being internationalized and neutralized, Arabia, 280 
Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine are, in our judg- 
ment, entitled to a recognition of their separate national 
conditions. 

What the exact form of that recognition in each case 
should be need not here be discussed beyond stating that 235 
it would be impossible to restore to their former sover- 
eignty the territories to which I have already referred. 



172 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Much has been said about the arrangements we have 
entered into with our aUies on this and on other subjects. 

290 I can only say that as the new circumstances, Hke the 
Russian collapse and the separate negotiations, have 
changed the conditions under which those arrangements 
were made, we are, and always have been, perfectly 
ready to discuss them with our allies. 

295 With regard to the German colonies, I have repeat- 
edly declared that they are held at the disposal of a con- 
ference whose decision must have primary regard to the 
wishes and interests of the native inhabitants of such col- 
onies. None of those territories are inhabited by Euro- 

300 peans. The governing consideration, therefore, must be 
that the inhabitants should be placed under the control 
of an administration acceptable to themselves, one of 
whose main purposes will be to prevent their exploitation 
for the benefit of European capitalists or governments. 

305 The natives live in their various tribal organizations 
under chiefs and councils who are competent to consult and 
speak for their tribes and members and thus to repre- 
sent their wishes and interests in regard to their disposal. 
The general principle of national self-determination is, 

310 therefore, as applicable in their cases as in those of the 
occupied European territories. 

The German declaration that the natives of the 
German colonies have through their military fidelity in 
war shown their attachment and resolve under all circum- 

315 stances to remain with Germany is applicable, not to 
the German colonies generally, but only to one of them, 
and in that case, German East Africa, the German 
authorities secured the attachment, not of the native 
population as a whole, which is and remains profoundly 

320 anti-German, but only of a small warlike class, from 
whom their askaris, or soldiers, were selected. These they 



BRITAIN'S WAR AIMS 173 

attached to themselves by conferring on them a highly 
'privileged position, as against the bulk of the native 
population, which enabled these askaris to assume a lordly 
and oppressive superiority over the rest of the natives. 325 

By this and other means they secured the attachment 
of a very small and insignificant minority, whose interests 
were directly opposed to those of the rest of the popula- 
tion and for whom they have no right to speak. The 
German treatment of the native populations in their 330 
colonies has been such as amply to justify their fear of 
submitting the future of those colonies to the wishes of 
the natives themselves. 

Finally, there must be reparation for the injuries done 
in violation of international law. The peace conference 335 
must not forget our seamen and the services they have 
rendered to and the outrages they have suffered for the 
common cause of freedom. 

One omission we notice in the proposal of the Central 
Powers which seems to us especially regrettable. It is 340 
desirable and essential that the settlement after this 
war shall be one which does not in itself bear the seeds 
of future war. But that is not enough. However 
wisely and well we may make territorial and other 
arrangements, there will still be many subjects of inter- 345 
national controversy. Some, indeed, are inevitable. 

Economic conditions at the end of the war will be in 
the highest degree difficult owing to the diversion of 
human effort to warlike pursuits. There must follow 
a world shortage of raw materials, which will increase 350 
the longer the war lasts, and it is inevitable that those 
countries which have control of raw materials will desire 
to help themselves and their friends first. Apart from 
this, whatever settlement is made will be suitable only 
to the circumstances under which it is made, and as those 355 



174 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

circumstances change, changes in the settlement will be 
called for. 

So long as the possibility of a dispute between nations 
continues — that is, so long as men and women are domi- 

360 nated by impassioned ambition and war is the only means 

of settling a dispute — all nations must live under a burden 

not only of having from time to time to engage in it, but 

of being compelled to prepare for its possible outbreak. 

The crushing weight of modern armaments, the increase 

365 ing evil of compulsory military service, the vast waste 
of wealth and effort involved in warlike preparation — 
these are blots on our civilisation of which every think- 
ing individual must be ashamed. For these and other 
similar reasons we are confident that a great attempt 

370 must be made to establish, by some international organi- 
zation, an alternative to war as a means of settling 
international disputes. 

After all, war is a relic of barbarism, and, just as law 
has succeeded violence as a means of settling disputes 

875 between individuals, so we believe that it is destined 
ultimately to take the place of war in the settlement of 
controversies between nations. 

If, then, we are asked what we are fighting for, we 
reply, as we have often replied. We are fighting for a 

380 just and a lasting peace, and we believe that before per- 
manent peace can be hoped for three conditions must be 
fulfilled : First, the sanctity of treaties must be reestab- 
lished; secondly, a territorial settlement must be secured, 
based on the right of self-determination or the consent of 

385 the governed, and, lastly, we must seek, by the creation 
of some international organization, to limit the burden 
of armaments and diminish the probability of war. 
On these conditions its peoples are prepared to make 
even greater sacrifices than those they have yet endured. 



THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY 175 

THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY 

ARTHUR HENDERSON 

[This selection is from a little book called The Aims of Labor. 
The author began life as a molder in the Stephenson works at 
Newcastle, England, and held various positions in his trade society. 
He has been a member of Parliament since 1903. He is secretary 
of the British Labor Party, and was for a time a member of the 
War Cabinet. He is especially interested in the reconstruction 
measures which he thinks must follow the "defeat of aggressive 
militarism and autocracy." He says that "President Wilson's 
famous declaration that the supreme inspiration of the military 
efforts of the Allies against the Central Powers is the desire to make 
the world safe for democracy will remain for all time one of the 
classic utterances of real statesmanship. It crystallizes in a brief 
sentence the spiritual yearnings and idealist sentiments of all free 
peoples." What Mr. Henderson thinks democracy really means is 
clearly set forth in our extract.] 

The cruel ravages of the world war have caused a 
great resurgence of democratic feeling throughout the 
world, and have given a great impetus to the already 
strong popular tendencies towards democratic control in 
national and international affairs. It is impossible to 
calculate the extent to which democratic thought and 
ideals now permeate the peoples of the world: Suffice it 
to say that in every country without exception the people's 
conception of the tremendous power that is invested in 
them constitutionally and divinely has been deepened. 
Though there is no divine right of kings and princes, there 
is the divine right of peoples : and all the peoples of the 
earth are beginning to realise more and more each day 
that the "new kingdom on earth" can only be established 
by a full recognition of these divine rights — the rights of 
liberty and equality. These are the springs of democratic 
faith. They are the spiritual basis of real democracy. 

The coming of world democracy means the universal 
reign of freedom and justice, equality and fraternity; the 
universal acceptance of the principle of equal opportu- 
nities for all peoples to self-determination and self- 

13 



176 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

development ; and a practical recognition of the rights and 
obligations of each nation as a member of the society of 
free nations. It also means a recognition of the inter- 
dependence of peoples, and involves international coopera- 
tion and goodwill. 

In international affairs it means the welfare of the 
whole of humanity as against selfish national interests and 
ambitions. In national affairs it means the common 
weal as against class or individual interests. National 
prosperity cannot be truly appraised by the wealth of the 
few, but by the contentment and happiness of the commu- 
nity as a whole and their ability to satisfy, not only their 
social requirements, but also their spiritual needs. As 
Lecky has truly said, "The essential qualities of national 
greatness are moral, not material." Moral greatness 
may beget material prosperity, but material prosperity 
by itself invariably tends to a depreciation of the spiritual 
and moral: it dulls the finer sensibilities, and saps the 
real strength of a people. How often in the early days 
of war was the fear expressed that our great material 
prosperity had deadened many of the finest national 
qualities and characteristics of our race? Fortunately for 
the future welfare of the people, they were not dead, 
but lying dormant, and the impulse to new life which 
they received in 19 14 was so great that under the sub- 
sequent stress and strain of war the vision of the people 
became clearer, their sense of real values became finer 
and more keen, until now they are determined that hence- 
forth only the best social structure that human knowledge, 
experience, and capacity can devise will satisfy their 
determination to rebuild civilisation on a foundation of 
justice and righteousness. 

But it is hopeless to expect to create a healthy inter- 
nationalism and a true nationalism unless the importance 



THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY 177 

of the individual also is recognized. The society of 
nations is founded on the comity of individuals. And 
there is an obvious danger in overlooking the supreme 
importance of character as an indispensable factor in 
national and international life. Looking at every 
phase of national life, we find a decided tendency to 
undervalue or ignore altogether the moral worth of the 
unit of society. We think in numbers : we act in numbers. 
Movements appeal to our minds, not always because they 
are right, but because they are popular. Many people 
talk about what is wrong with the world, the nation, or 
the municipality, but do not dream of enquiring what 
is wrong with the individual. Yet the expression of the 
national will represents the greatest common measure of 
the views of the constituent individuals in the aggregate. 
And democracy can never rise to the full greatness of 
its possibilities unless the individual rises to the highest 
point of moral greatness. Men and women with low 
moral standards are the weakest links in the chain, and 
the strength of the chain is limited to the strength of 
its weakest link. To secure an improvement in the 
material and social conditions of the people, we must 
elevate the moral standards of the people, since it is 
only possible to secure and consolidate vital changes as 
a result of the moral determination of the community as 
a whole. This question of the importance of the moral 
passion and rectitude of the individual is becoming daily 
more urgent in view of the significant rise and growing 
power of democracy in this country. The future welfare 
of the nation is in the hands of the organized democracy, 
and we are compelled to concern ourselves not only with 
intentions and practical aims, but with the faith, the 
ideals, and the personal qualities of leaders and followers. 
The difficulties before us are stupendous — Rome was 



178 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

90 not built in a day, and neither will the new national and 
internation^kstructure be completed in a day nor without 
heavy demands being made upon the moral staying 
power of the people. To follow the line of least resist- 
ance will not bring us to the new world : the path will be 

95 long, difficult, and full of pitfalls. 

If democracy is to take full advantage of the glorious 
opportunities before it, it can only be as a people individu- 
ally strong in determination, and fired by moral passion 
and lofty ideals, led by men and women inspired to action 

100 by high purpose and unselfish ambition. Surely, then, 
we cannot afford to ignore the question of personal 
character in our efforts to reach the Social ideal. The 
doctrine of personal irresponsibility is not only dangerous, 
but an indication of a lack of vision on the part of those 

105 who advance it, and is often only employed to excuse 
an evasion of an individual's civic and social duties. 
The individual is not justified in claiming his national 
rights unless he fulfils his obligation to his fellow men 
and to the State : the State must recognize the rights of 

no its citizens if it demands from them a fulfilment of their 
obligations as citizens. This is the sure way to stimu- 
late a real personal and national consciousness upon which 
the success of democracy so much depends. Democracy 
will be effective in proportion to the intensity of its 

115 spiritual and moral faith; and the power of democracy 
as a whole will be measured by the loyalty of the 
individual to principle and by his belief in the moral 
power of right as against wrong. Character in the 
individual exemplifies human nature in its highest form, 

120 for it exhibits man at his best; and only a democracy 
built on the highest form of character will prove to be 
that instrument bv which the world is to be saved. 



ENNOBLING TRAGEDY 179 

ENNOBLING TRAGEDY 

GILBERT MURRAY 

[This selection is from a pamphlet, How Can War Ever Be Right, 
first published in September, 191 4, a short time after the outbreak 
of the war. Its author, the distinguished regius professor of Greek 
at Oxford University, is noted for his translations of the tragedies 
of Euripides and for his enlightened views on modern problems. 
While he has always been a most earnest advocate of peace, yet he 
at once took the position "that we were right to declare war against 
Germany on August 4, 1914, and that to have remained neutral in 
that crisis would have been a failure in pubHc duty. " In simple 
and direct language he presents the principles involved so clearly 
that it is impossible to escape his conclusions. War must always be 
a tragedy involving disaster, but a war for righteous principle will 
call forth spiritual nobility and triumph as compensations.] 

And if we accept this [the ideal of duty well done] there 
will follow further consequences. War is not all evil. 
It is a true tragedy, which must have nobleness and 

triumph in it as well as disaster We must not 

begin to praise war without stopping to reflect on the 
hundreds of thousands of human beings involved in such 
horrors of pain and indignity that, if here in our ordinary 
hours we saw one man so treated, the memory would 
sicken us to the end of our lives; we must remember the 
horses, remember the gentle natures brutalized by hard- 
ships and filth, and the once decent persons transformed 
by rage and fear into devils of cruelty. But, when we 
have realized that, we may venture to see in this wilder- 
ness of evil some cases of extraordinary good. 

These men who are engaged in what seems like a vast 
public crime ought, one would think, to fall to something 
belov/ their average selves, below the ordinary standard 
of common folk. But do they? Day after day come 
streams of letters from the front, odd stories, fragments 
of diaries, and the like, full of the small, intimate facts 
which reveal character; and almost with one accord they 
show that these men have not fallen, but risen. No 



i8o THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

doubt there has been some selection in the letters; to 
some extent the writers repeat what they wish to have 
remembered, and say nothing of what they wish to for- 
get. But, when all allowances are made, one cannot 
read the letters and the dispatches without a feeling of 
almost passionate admiration for the men about whom 
they tell. They were not originally a set of men chosen 
for their peculiar qualities. They were just our ordinary 
fellow citizens, the men you meet on a crowded pave- 
ment. There was nothing to suggest that their conduct 
in common life was better than that of their neighbours. 
Yet now, under the stress of war, having a duty before 
them that is clear and unquestioned and terrible, they 
are daily doing nobler things than we most of us have 
ever had the chance of doing, things which we hardly 
dare hope that we might be able to do. I am not think- 
ing of the rare achievements that win a V.C. or a Cross 
of the Legion of Honour, but of the common necessary 
heroism of the average men: the long endurance, the 
devoted obedience, the close-banded life in which self- 
sacrifice is the normal rule, and all men may be forgiven 
except the man who saves himself at the expense of his 
comrade. I think of the men who share their last bis- 
cuits with a starving peasant, who help wounded com- 
rades through days and nights of horrible retreat, who 
give their lives to save mates or ofificers. 

For example, to take two stories out of a score: 
I. Relating his experience to a pressman, Lance- 
Corporal Edmondson, of the Royal Irish Lancers, said: 
"There is absolutely no doubt that our m_en are still 
animated by the spirit of old. I came on a couple of 
men of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders who had 
been cut off at Mons. One was badly wounded, but his 
companion had stuck by him all the time in a country 



ENNOBLING TRAGEDY i8i 

swarming with Germans, and though they had only a 
few biscuits between them they managed to pull through 
until we picked them up. I pressed the unwounded man to 
tell me how they managed to get through the four days 
on six biscuits, but he always got angry and told me to 
shut up. I fancy he went without anything, and gave 
the biscuits to the wounded man. They were offered 
shelter many times by French peasants, but they were so 
afraid of bringing trouble on these kind folk that they 
would never accept shelter. One night they lay out in 
the open all through a heavy downpour, though there 
was a house at hand where they could have had shelter. 
Uhlans were on the prowl, and they would not think of 
compromising the French people, who would have been 
glad to help them. " 

2. The following story of an unidentified private of the 
Royal Irish Regiment, who deliberately threw away his 
life in order to warn his comrades of an ambush, is told 
by a wounded corporal of the West Yorkshire Regiment 
now in hospital in Woolwich: 

"The fight in which I got hit was in a little village near 
to Rheims. We were working in touch with the French 
corps on our left, and early one morning were sent ahead 
to this village, which we had reason to believe was clear 
of the enemy. On the outskirts we questioned a French 
lad, but he seemed scared and ran away. We went on 
through the long, narrow street, and just as we were in 
sight of the end a man dashed out from a farmhouse on 
the right. Immediately the rifles began to crack in front, 
and the poor chap fell dead before he reached us. 

"He was one of our men, a private of the Royal Irish 
Regiment. We learned that he had been captured the 
previous day by a marauding party of German cavalry, 
and held a prisoner at the farm where the Germans were 



i82 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

in ambush for us. He tumbled to their game, and though 
he knew that if he made the sHghtest sound they would 
kill him, he decided to make a dash to warn us of what 
was in store. He had more than a dozen bullets in him, 

95 and there was not the slightest hope for him. We 
carried him into a house until the fight was over, and 
then we buried him next day with military honours. 
His identification disk and everything else was missing, 
so that we could only put over his grave the tribute 

100 that was paid to a greater: 'He saved others; himself 
he could not save.' There wasn't a dry eye among 
us when we laid him to rest in that little village." 

Or I think again of the expressions on faces that I have 
seen or read about, something alert and glad and self- 

105 respecting in the eyes of those who are going to the front, 
and even of the wounded who are returning. "Never 
once," writes one correspondent, "not once since I came 
to France have I seen among the soldiers an angry face 
or heard an angry word They are always quiet, 

110 orderly, and wonderfully cheerful. " And no one who has 
followed the war need be told of their heroism. I do not 
forget the thousands left on the battlefield to die, or the 
groaning of the wounded sounding all day between the 
crashes of the guns. But there is a strange deep gladness 

115 as well. "One feels an extraordinary freedom," says a 
young Russian officer, "in the midst of death, with the 
bullets whistling round. The same with all the soldiers. 
The wounded all want to get well and return to the fight. 
They fight with tears of joy in their eyes. " 

120 Human nature is a mysterious thing, and man finds 
his weal and woe not in the obvious places. To have 
something before you, clearly seen, which you know you 
must do, and can do, and will spend your utmost strength 
and perhaps your life in doing, that is one form at least 



THE AMERICAN INVASION OF ENGLAND 183 

of very high happiness, and one that appeals — the facts 125 
prove it — not only to saints and heroes, but to average 
men. Doubtless the few who are wise enough and have 
enough imagination may find opportunity for that same 
happiness in everyday life, but in war ordinary men find 
it. This is the inward triumph which lies at the heart of 130 
the great tragedy. 

THE AMERICAN INVASION OF ENGLAND 

RUDYARD KIPLING 

[Mr. Kipling seems quite as able to make a graceful talk at close 
range as to tell us of the Soldiers Three in far-off India. This little • 
speech of welcome to American soldiers at a training camp near the 
old city of Winchester, England, on July 21, 1918, is just what such 
a speech should be. It is full of good fellowship, whimsical in 
exaggeration, with earnestness and delicate flashes of suggestion.] 

Several years have passed since England was perma- 
nently occupied by the armed forces of a foreign nation. 
On the last occasion — eight hundred years ago — our 
people did not take kindly to the invaders. I know they 
did not, because I live a few miles from where the Battle 5 
of Hastings was fought, where all the trouble began; and 
I assure you we are still talking about it. But don't 
let me take up your time by retailing the local gossip of 
these parts. Besides, conditions have changed. They 
will after 853 years — even in England. You may have 10 
noticed that we natives do not resent either the presence 
of your armed forces on our soil, or your buildings such 
as these — huts, which are one of the visible signs of your 
occupation. As far as 3^ou are concerned, we are a placid, 
not to say pacifist, community. Why, gentlemen, you 15 
could not annoy us if you started in to build pyramids. 
On the contrary, we should be pleased. We should say: 
"This looks like business; this looks as if the United 
States meant to stay till they had done their share of the 
job thoroughly." 20 



i84 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

We have been a long time over our job, and we may- 
be a long time yet. It has been a little bigger than we 
expected, because this is the first time since the creation 
that all the world has been obliged to unite for the pur- 

25 pose of fighting the devil. You remember that before 
the war one of our easy theories was that the devil was 
almost extinct — he was only the child of misfortune or 
accident, and we should soon abolish him by passing 
ringing resolutions against him. That has proved an 

30 expensive miscalculation. We find now that the devil is 
very much alive, and very much what he always was 
— that is to say, immensely industrious, a born organ- 
izer, and better at quoting Scripture for his own ends 
than most honest men. His industry and organization 

35 we all can deal with, but more difficult to handle is his 
habit of quoting Scripture as soon as he is in difficulties. 
When Germany begins to realize her defeat is certain 
we shall be urged in the name of mercy, toleration, loving- 
kindness, for the sake of the future of mankind, or by 

40 similar appeals to the inextinguishable vanity of man, who 
delights in thinking himself holy and righteous when he 
is really only lazy or tired — I say, we shall be urged on 
these high grounds to make some sort of compromise 
with or to extend some recognition to the power which 

45 has for its one object the destruction of man, body and 
soul. Yet, if we accept these pleas, we shall betray man- 
kind as effectively as though we had turned our backs 
upon the battle from the first. 

But you, gentlemen, have not come three thousand 

50 miles to protect Germany. Your little vanguard is here to 
help her change her heart, and I read a day or two ago 
the lines on which you propose to change it: "When we 
went to war with Germany it was with the resolve to 
destroy German war power. If that power is inseparable 



THE AMERICAN INVASION OF ENGLAND 185 

from the German people, then we are resolved upon the 55 
destruction of the German people. The alternative is 
in their hands." That is reasonable and easy to under- 
stand. You are going, none too soon, into a world which 
has been laboriously wrecked by high German philosophy, 
based on the devil's own creed that there is nothing good no 
or evil in life but thinking makes it so — in other words, 
that right and wrong are matters of pure fancy. 

That belief it will be your privilege to assist in remov- 
ing from the German's mind. His beliefs are primitive. 
Except on certain portions of the front, where he has been cs 
better educated, he believed that the United States Army 
does not exist. In the first place, it could not cross the 
Atlantic; in the second, it was sunk while crossing; in 
the third, it was no use when it arrived. It is possible 
that you may be able to persuade him that he has been 70 
misinformed on these points. 

Meantime, your invasion of England goes forward 
according to program day by day. Unlike the other 
invaders we have known, you bring everything you need 
with you, and do not live upon the inhabitants. In this 75 
you are true to the historical vow of your ancestors, 
when they said, "Millions for defense, but not one cent 
for tribute." At any other time the nations would be 
lost in amazement at the mere voltune and scope of your 
equipment, at the terrifying completeness of your prepa- s) 
rations, at the dread evidence of power that underlies 
them. But we have lived so among miracles these last 
four years that, even though the thing accomplished 
itself before our very eyes, we scarcely realise that we 
watch the actual bodily transit of the New World mov- 85 
ing in arms to aid in redressing the balance of the Old. 
Vv^e are too close to these vast upheavals and breakings 
forth to judge of their significance. One falls back on 



i86 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

the simpler, the more comprehensible, fact that we are 

90 blood-brothers in a common cause, and therefore in that 

enduring fellowship of loss, toil, peril, and homesickness 

which must needs be our portion before we come to victory. 

But life is not all gray even under these skies. There 

is a reasonable amount of fun left in the world still, if 

95 you know where to look for it — and I have noticed that 

the young generally have this knowledge. And there 

are worse fates in the world than to be made welcome, 

as you are more than welcome, to the honorable and 

gallant fraternity of comrades-in-arms the wide world 

100 over. Our country and our hearts are at your service, 

and with these our understanding of the work ahead of 

you. That understanding we have bought at the price 

of the lifeblood of a generation. 

DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION 

A. C. BENSON 

[A clearer conception of what democracy means must affect every 
phase of our existence. Such an understanding of its meaning will 
make it necessary to overhaul our social machinery and remodel 
much of it, if not to cast some of it aside entirely. At least we shall 
feel the need of questioning everything in the light of newly seen 
opportunities and duties. Is education doing for the world all it 
can do? Are we wasting valuable energy by going against the 
wind and the tide? Shall we keep to the old lines or radically 
depart from them? Mr. Benson, an essayist of many books and an 
educator of high rank, the Master of Magdalene College, Cam- 
bridge, tells us what he thinks about it. His views are clearly 
constructive, and, though he is not likely to lead us to any rash 
innovations, he raises the questions that we must settle for the 
future.] 

Now that we are beginning to feel the steady and 
inevitable pressure of the democracy in all our institu- 
tions, both social and political, we must try to perceive 
and recognize the disadvantages of the rising force as 
5 well as its advantages and minimize the dangers as well 
as emphasize the benefits. 



DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION 187 

The advantages are obvious. The democratic idea 
aims at making government an expression of the mind 
of the state and safeguarding the rights of all, while 
diminishing as far as possible all privilege and favor. 
What a democracy claims, and rightly claims, is that 
any one particular class shall not govern the country 
with a view to its own comfort and convenience, and that 
certain people shall not possess the right of government 
by mere accident of inheritance, and quite apart from 
their disinterestedness and their^ fitness to rule. But 
the danger of the democracy is that a state tends to be 
governed according to the preferences and ideas of the 
average man; and this is a real danger, because progress 
and civilisation never result from the ideas of the average 
man. The average man is cautious and stationary, and 
is not alive to any advantages except what obviously 
and directly profit himself. 

It is impossible, and would be undesirable even if it 
were possible, to govern a state on such principles. The 
average man has no foresight, few ideals, considerable 
suspicion of unselfish motive, which he believes to be 
but a concealed and artful selfishness working for its 
own ends; what he values is anything which gives him 
immediate comfort and security, what benefits him here 
and now. It is essential that a country should be gov- 
erned by men who have a design and a plan, though that 
plan must aim at the democratic theory, which is the 
greatest happiness of the greatest number. The first 
item in the democratic program must always be that no 
member of a state should be forced to live under con- 
ditions of uncheered drudgery and degrading poverty. 
But that once achieved, the object must not be to reduce 
everything to a dead level, but to encourage everything 
which rises above that level; to produce an aristocracy, 



i88 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

not of wealth and rank, but of intellect and character, 
and to see that such an aristocracy has the direction of 
affairs, not for its own profit, but for the profit of all. 
Infinitely the most important factor in the democratic 

45 system of a country is, of course, its system of education. 
Everyone who has had anything to do with the technical 
organization of education is generally surprised and dis- 
concerted to find how very little such organization seems 
to have to do with the main objects of education. It 

50 seem.s to be all finance, and bodies which deal with the 
administration of education seem to do nothing except 
deal with financial business. What is to be taught and 
how it is to be taught, how to make the teaching pro- 
fession into a real career, so as to attract men and women 

55 of high qualities into the service — these points seem to 
receive little consideration. By far the most important 
force in education is the personality of the teacher. A 
good teacher can produce great results out of the feeblest 
curriculum; an inefficient teacher can achieve no result 

60 worth considering with the finest curriculum in the world 
because the difficulty of education is not the method of 
instruction, but how to implant a desire to learn. 

But it is here that the first obstacle appears. The 
average man has a vague sense of the benefit of education 

65 as a process whereby it is possible to better one's self; but 
he wants to get it cheap. He talks about the market 
value of a teacher and he does not see that it is worth 
his while to pay a great deal to get the right kind of 
teacher, while it is hardly worth his while to pay any- 

70 thing at all for the wrong kind of teacher. Of course, 
whether the teaching is good or bad, the process itself 
by which children are kindly and sensibly disciplined, 
taught order and obedience, supervised and guided at 
an impressionable time of life, is of the utmost value; 



DExMOCRACY AND EDUCATION 189 

but the real end and aim of all education is the training 75 
of citizens. What one desires to develop in all children 
is some consciousness of being a part of a great whole. 

All this cannot be communicated by formal lessons. 
It would be of little use to draw up a sort of civic catechism 
and make children repeat by heart the most virtuous and so 
high-minded sentiments. It can only be taught by men 
and women who feel it themselves, people with a real 
sense of duty and brotherhood. The first necessity, 
then, is to enlist such moral energy in the training of 
the young, and this can be done only by making the 85 
teaching profession one which offers not only influence — 
it does that already — but civic advantages of an obvious 
kind. A man who desires to marry and bring up his 
children well must provide himself with a situation 
where this is possible. One cannot demand that all 90 
teachers, for the sake of the benefit to the state, sacrifice 
prospects at every point. It is mere sentiment alism 
to suggest this; and all who have any strong interest in 
the future of the state should take every opportunity of 
urging the necessity of making the teaching profession 95 
into a real career. There is no political or social reform 
which would have anything like so great and far-reaching 
effect on the well-being of the country as this. 

And then the question arises as to what type of edu- 
cation is the best for the children of the nation. Every- 100 
one who knows anything of elementary education must 
feel that our system is at present a very imperfect one. 
Very little attention is paid to special aptitudes, and 
still less attention is paid to the kind of work for which 
children are being prepared. Whenever it is urged that 105 
education ought to be utilitarian, one is met by an out- 
cry from high-minded persons who talk vaguely of 
culture. But what is culture? It is a pity that the 



I90 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

word has rather priggish and unpleasant associations, 

110 because it is a very real thing indeed, and there is no other 
word for it. What culture really means is an interest in 
ideas, in things which are not purely material, a suscepti- 
bility to higher and finer influences. But what the 
advocates of culture too often think is that it is an 

115 intellectual thing which can be handed out to people in 
packets, and which consists of reading the right books 
and knowing a quantity of facts. But culture is not an 
accomplishment, it is a quality; and it is based upon 
imagination and emotion. 

120 The real thing which one wishes to develop in men and 
women is what I can only call imaginative sympathy. 
Imagination by itself cannot do much, because one can 
have a great deal of imagination of a purely selfish kind 
which is just a satisfaction to the possessor because it 

125 adds a pleasure to life; sympathy pure and simple is a 
higher quality still, but sympathy without imagination 
tends to make one offer to other people not what they 
need and desire, but what one thinks they ought to need 
and desire. But imaginative sympathy is a very high 

130 and fine quality indeed, because it gives one the power of 
seeing into the minds and hearts of others as well as the 
desire to help people along in their own way, and not 
merely on the lines which one prefers. 

One who has imaginative sympathy is moved by the 

135 beauty of fine, generous, courageous, noble qualities, and 
desires that others should be and feel what is so obviously 
beautiful and desirable to one's self; and this, the culture 
which ends in this sort of sympathy, is the only kind of 
culture worth having, because it is at once seeing what 

140 is best and desiring that others should share it. 

Take such a subject as history. It is of very little 
use either practically or intellectually that people should 



DEMOCRACY AND EDUCATION 191 

just know a string of facts and dates. What is important 
is to understand the slow growth of social virtues, to 
feel patriotic, to realize how the rights of men are slowly us 
defined, that politics is but an attempt to include more 
and more individuals in an ever-widening circle of peace 
and order in virtue. History is only inspiring in so far 
as it gives some notion of the aims of mankind and shows 
how the hopes and aspirations of one generation translate 150 
themselves into the welfare of the next. 

It may be said that this is a very transcendental view 
of education. The so-called sensible man may pooh- 
pooh it and say that the only object of education is to 
enable a man to fight efficiently for himself and to secure 155 
as large a share as possible of this world's goods; but if 
that were the only end of education, we are no better off 
than before, because we should only end by educating 
everyone into efficient selfishness without in the smallest 
degree increasing the resources of the world — the world m 
would still be a battlefield, and the only change would be 
that the combatants were better armed ! 

But I desire to be severely practical. We must face 
the fact that, whatever happens, the necessary work of 
the world will still have to be done; the earth must be m 
tilled, communication must be kept up, things must be 
carried to and fro, sewers must be cleaned, houses must 
be swept, food must be cooked. The only wise aim in 
education must be, not to educate men and women out 
of a taste for such things, but into enjoying them. And, no 
therefore, I want our educators to keep this in sight and 
to train children deliberately for their work in the world. 
I desire to see girls trained in household duties and boys 
whose life must be spent in the country to be trained to 
love and understand the country — not to be taught to 175 
want to leave it. Boys in industrial districts, whose 

14 



192 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

work will be manufacture, ought to be trained to know 
what such work means, what is being aimed at, where 
the products of their work go, how they will be used, so 

180 that the imagination should if possible be awakened and 
men can learn to see that their labor is not lost, but that 
it has a definite channel, and reaches some other human 
hand at last as surely as it leaves their own. 

And then, too, all school training should include the 

185 teaching of how to use leisure. Half the dullness of labor 
comes from having no idea how to use the spare hours 
of it. A governing class which overvalues games — which 
are only manual labor turned inside out — ought to be 
wise enough to see that some contrast is needed in the 

190 case of manual workers; literature and art ought to be 
given as freely as possible to those who labor — the love, 
that is, of beautiful thoughts and things and the direct 
kindling of the imagination ought to be kept in sight 
in all education. 

195 Of course, we must have comfort and decent conditions 
first — that is the task for politicians and social reformers 
— but the whole movement must go hand in hand, for 
one cannot satisfy the needs of man by merely satisfy- 
ing his material desires; and if material comfort is the 

200 result of utilitarian education, then such education is 
not enough; there must be something more than that. 
We have to educate men out of individualism and selfish- 
ness into social and civic virtue. 

And thus the aim of all educators must be to a certain 

205 extent transcendental ; they must have a practical theory 
first, because it cannot be too strongly insisted upon 
that an education which does not fit a man for life is 
ipso facto a fraud; but that once done there must be 
something higher and larger in view: "Some scorn of 

210 self, some hate of wrong." 



PART III 

EMBATTLED DEMOCRACY: LETTERS 
FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 



There is hardly a man who will not 

return from the War bigger than when he 

left home. . . . He may be rougher in 

manner. But it will not be for nothing 

that he has learnt to endure hardship 

without making a song about it, that he 

has risked his life for righteousness' sake, 

that he has bound up the wounds of his 

mates, and shared with them his meager 

rations. 

— Donald Hankey 



PART III 
INTRODUCTORY 

For the first time in the long history of warfare the 
man in the service has found a voice and given adequate 
expression to the army's soul. He has done this by 
means of innumerable letters, poems, and books of per- 
sonal experiences. These various forms of communi- 
cation run the entire emotional gamut from the hilarities 
of a Bruce Bairnsfather to the intense spiritual serious- 
ness of a Donald Hankey. 

In Part III will be found a series of selected passages 
from letters. These have not been chosen because they 
are the best that could be found. They have been 
chosen as fairly representative of the various subjects 
about which soldiers write and as representative of the 
types of mind making up the armies of democracy. For 
these armies, we must keep in mind, are made up of 
citizens of all classes and callings. The professional 
soldier's point of view is not that commonly found. 
These men came from the walks of peaceful life. They 
were bound to their homes by strong domestic ties. 
They were not romantic adventurers, but men moving 
under the sense of great duties and faith in a great ideal. 
Their literary style is not always faultless. There is 
little evidence of pose. The power of such letters lies 
in the evident sincerity of the writers. 

These letters, for the most part, have appeared in 
print in widely scattered periodicals. Many sections of 
the country are represented. A few letters are from 
English, French, or Italian soldiers. Several from men 

195 



196 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

who have fallen are from memorial volumes of collected 
letters or fragmentary literary remains. As a rule the 
writers are not personally indent ified, since the point to 
the collection is that of typically representing the more 
intimate and personal reactions produced by contact with 
the unfamiliar and astounding facts of war. 

The value of such personal revelations has been well 
expressed recently by Joseph H. Odell. "Books from 
the front," he says, "which unveil the more solemn 
phases of the individual soul are the ones most eagerly 
read. What are to be the permanent, that is to say, the 
spiritual, contributions of this terrible but glorious 
struggle to humanity? Whatever treaty of peace is 
signed, it may some day be abandoned or modified; 
whatever changes the war may make in the currents of 
trade, they cannot hold their new direction forever. 
But the spiritual marks left upon the race will abide till 
the end of time,, and no subsequent events will be able 
to erase them." 

Many of these letters are frankly descriptive or narrative 
in character, trying to give the folks at home some account 
of the new and strange surroundings. A farmer boy is 
interested in the way the French farm is conducted. 
Another tries to make clear the celebrations of July 4 or 
of July 14. Another describes the Christmas scene in a 
French village, while still another tries to give some 
conception of the almost inconceivable mud of the 
trenches. Whatever the subject, the impression upon 
the writer was so strong that it seemed to give vigor and 
vividness to his words, and to dispel the woodenness 
often found in the conventional letter. 

Good nature and good humor abound in soldier letters. 
The discomforts and irritations of the active front seem 
by a sort of happy fact in human nature to work them- 



INTRODUCTORY 197 

selves off in a sense of humor. Sometimes the humor 
which a reader finds was not consciously put there by 
the writer, as in the case of the soldier who had just gone 
through those great days of July, 19 18, and yet reports 
to his family that "news is scarce." The whimsical 
letter of the captured American doctor now "transferred 
to the German service" is capital, as is, also, the report 
of the interview with the colored soldier who, with his 
partner, so distinguished himself in repelling a German 
raiding party. 

One of the marked features of the soldier's letter is his 
recognition of the supreme interest of his mother in his 
comfort and safety. He is constantly urging her "not 
to worry," constantly belittling the discomforts or 
dangers. If he writes from the hospital it is usually to 
reassure his mother that he is "getting along fine." 
With the possibility of death constantly before him, he 
urges various reasons why she should not be distressed if 
the worst happens, because, after all, it will not be the 
worst. "Do not grieve that I am among the missing, 
but rather rejoice that you have given a son in sacrifice 
... to save civilization, to prevent future wars, . . . and 
to make the world safe for democracy." Death, says 
another, "may mean something more wonderful than 
life. It cannot mean anything worse to the good soldier. 
So do not be unhappy, but no matter what happens 
walk with your head high and glory in your large share 
of whatever credit the world may give me. " 

This sense of dedication to a great cause runs through 
the letters as a golden thread. That crusading ideal had 
most to do, no doubt, in bridging over those periods in the 
war when the cause of the Allies seemed in danger, and 
was certainly the basis of the confident enthusiasm with 
which the American soldier entered the conflict. A 



198 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

young Slovenian in our army bids his young life good-by 
"until the day has come when I can proudly see the 
liberated Jugo-Slavia in a liberated world." Another 
soldier, though recognizing "the hideousness of the 
means," still feels that "this is not a war between coun- 
tries, but a war of Humanity against violence and evil." 
"I am happy, " says a young Italian, "in offering my life 
to my country; I am proud to spend it for so noble a 
purpose and I know not how to thank Divine Providence 
for the opportunity ... to fight in this holy war for liberty 
and justice." 

The informal nature of the letter as a means of expres- 
sion makes it a fitting outlet for all moods and for all 
convictions. In these letters the soldier stoutly stands 
up for his country on all occasions. He is especially 
proud of the success of American troops. He appre- 
ciates the fine qualities of his comrades in battle from 
all the corners of the earth. He want's, above every- 
thing else, to be "the good soldier." "I want you to 
pray each night that I may be able to live my new life 
as an ideal soldier should; that I may be able to face all 
danger with a smile and a heart full of courage." And 
when he writes to break the news of a comrade's death, 
he does it with a gentleness and a tenderness that are 
worthy the great traditions of humanity. 

All the various contrasts of war are found in the millions 
of letters which soldiers have sent home since 19 14. 
Nowhere have these contrasts been more vividly sug- 
gested than in a few lines by Beach Thomas : 

"Yet war is wonderful as well as gross, majestic as well 
as muddy. That full sentence of Napier's, 'With what 
a majesty the British soldier fights, ' goes ringing in the 
head even when a knock-kneed soldier from the slums 
falls gasping in the mud at the bottom of a crazy ditch. 



INTRODUCTORY 199 

Humour and good humour laugh on the parapet of 
death, and health sprouts from the centres of mud and 
reek. Ideals, faith and loyalty, shine through the curses 
and blasphemy that often pour from the mouth of the 
fighter. Even the most insensate soldier will religiously 
exclude from his letters home anything that might breathe 
alarm or hint danger. What war is morally, it is also 
aesthetically. Its grandeur — to the eyes, though never to 
the mind — may be overwhelming. It may even be 
pretty, or, as soldiers say, 'amusing.' Its contrasts cover 
the field of contrasts." 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 

1. A western soldier reflects the 
splendid spirit of millions: 

Dear Mother, — There is just one drawback, and that 
is, I shall be leaving my dear ones at home and one in 

. Some day the war will be over and I shall follow 

the flag back home and see you all again with the supreme 
satisfaction of knowing that my duty toward my Govern- 
ment was well and faithfully done; until that time comes, 
I want you to pray each night that I may be able to live 
my new life as an ideal soldier should ; that I may be able 
to face all danger with a smile and a heart full of courage ; 
that I may be able to see my duty clearly and do it cheer- 
fully. I ask no more than this. 

When I go it shall be with a happy heart and one filled 
with love for my people. I ask of you not to worry, to be 
cheerful and contented, and if you are and I know you are, 
I can toss my destiny to the winds of fate and say : * 'Blow 
me where you will, all is well with me, and also with my 
home. I am ready. " 

2 . An Idaho aviator gives expression 
to the crusading spirit: 

My dear E , I am sure that millions of individuals 

are experiencing their renascence in these days. That is 
why the war is taking on — no, has long since taken on — 
the aspects of a sacred crusade; why the American 
soldiers, "the Solemn-looking Blokes," have astounded 
the world by their absolute faith, their wordless deter- 
mination, their businesslike attitude — yet without hatred 
or rancor in their hearts. I am sure the public mind of 
America, taken as a whole, more nearly represents the 

200 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 201 

"righteous wrath " of the prophets than any other national 

spectacle in history. I tell you, E , a moment of life 

in these days is worth an endless death; to feel that a 
single ego is the greatest thing in the world, if it be dedi- 
cated to the world; to see bright days for humanity 
behind the murk; to know that the smile in childish eyes 
shall not be driven out, and that we have a hand in this 
— what greater destiny could a man desire! 

I have lived moments in my life which I value more 
than an eternity of being dead. I mean I have felt at the 
time of those rare experiences — oh, it doesn't matter 
what they were — a song, a violin, a day on the top o' the 
earth, the thrill of a small bird's tune, the sight of a small 
flower, a game, a dream, a girl — a hundred times I have 
thought that this moment's sensuous joy is recompense 
enough for a death from which one may not — yea, does 
not — awaken! So I say I have a fund of wealth of life 
laid up, so that I could have no cause for complaint 
should I die to-morrow. 

I can hardly explain it — a year or two ago I was shak- 
ing in my small soul for fear that I should die before I had 
drunk deeply enough from the "Golden Cup." There 
were so many things I wanted to experience before I 
should die; but in the last two or three months that has 
all changed, and I feel that I have already experienced 
hundreds of things for which death would be a small price 
to pay. A bit of war-psychology, I guess. 

3. A Slovenian volunteer: 

I received the civil clothes sent me from Cleveland, and 
at the same time a thought occurred to me, which never 
left me — that I should feel ashamed to leave the army 
and go back to civil life. Indeed, how I love my young, 
healthy life; how I long to be free again, going on my 



202 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

own ways without hearing the command of another. 
But alas, am I justified to think of my own Hberty and 
happy hfe, when the moment is here that calls on every 
young man to bring liberty to others? Away, you selfish 
thoughts ! On into the battle ! I am a Slovene myself, 
and my fathers and grandfathers never had any opportu- 
nity to fight for liberty. Indeed, they fought for hun- 
dreds of years under the commands of the Hapsburgs to 

continue slavery and tyranny Good-by, my 

beloved young life, I shall not return to my happy home 
until the day has come when I can proudly see the lib- 
erated Jugo-Slavia in a liberated world. Then I shall 
return, conscious that I have done my bit. If I perish — 
I am afraid I shall — let it be so; the only thing I am 
sorry about is that I don't possess hundreds of lives, 
giving them all for liberty. 

4. An American in the Royal Flying Corps 

writes some oj his philosophy ^ 

Dearest Mother, — I don't want you to have another 
uncomfortable feeling in your heart — no worry about my 
health, or comfort, or happiness, nothing of this sort. 
For my limitations of physical comfort are so ridiculously 
slight, especially compared with most, that it would 
really be good for me if I had more. And little petty 
annoyances are good for one's self-control; besides, as 
I said, I don't let them get inside I am com- 
pletely content, for it seems as if I was never so rich or 
even hoped to be. I have absolutely nothing in the 

world to ask for, for myself You see you have 

no need to feel anything but gladness for me; so no more 
must you have any troublesome feelings in your heart, 
except harmless missing, which doesn't hurt when you 



iReprinted by permission from The Atlantic Monthly. 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 203 

know I am happy, as I am Even when I'm 

out there you must n't feel any dread or worry. I shall 
be even happier than now, and if it should happen 
that I just stopped being conscious, it wouldn't matter, 
because there was no regret and no dread, just perfect 
content 

You spoke of being more conscious of the grim realities 
than heretofore. To me the grim things somehow fade 
into unrealities in comparison with the realities of the 
heart and mind which are so vivid to me. 

I feel no bitterness against the Huns as individuals or 
as a race. It is war that I hate, and war that I am willing 
to give all to end, as permanently as possible; for it isn't 
the men that war kills, it is the mother's heart which it 
destroys that makes it hateful to me. War personified 
should not be the figure of death on a body-strewn battle- 
field, as it so often is. It should be pictured as a loath- 
some male striking a woman from behind — a woman 
with arms tied but eyes wide open. To kill that figure 
because it has struck my own mother— that is what I am 
exerting myself with all the will in my being to accom- 
plish 

To me it seems like a great final examination in college 
for a degree summa vita in mortem, and it challenges the 
best in me — spurs me on to dig down for every last 
reserve of energy, strength, and thought to pass this 
examination, as nothing in my life has or could. As I 
said in my letter to Dr. Mills — a thought suggested by 
Dr. Black — "death is the greatest event in life" — and 
it is seldom anything is made of it. What a privilege, 
then, to be able to meet it in a manner suitable to its 
greatness! To hav^e met once in your life a crisis which 
required the use of every last latent capacity: it is like 
being able to exercise a muscle which has been in a sling 



204 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

for a long time. So, the examination is comparatively 
easy for me to pass. But for you the examination is so 
much harder, and the degree conferred so much more 
obscure 

5. An Irish poet at the front s^, 

to another in Ireland: 

Your letter came yesterday evening like melody from 
the woods of home, as welcome as rain to the shrivelled 
lips of June. It was like laughter heard over a low hill. 
I would have written to thank you for the sweets, only 
that lately we were unsettled, wandering to and fro 
between the firing-line and resting-billets immediately 
behind. This letter is antedated by two hours, but 
before midnight we may be wandering in single and slow 
file, with the reserve line two or three thousand yards 
behind the fire-trench. We are under an hour's notice. 
Entering and leaving the line is most exciting, as we are 
usually but about thirty yards from the enemy, and you 
can scarcely understand how bright the nights are made 
by his rockets. These are in continual ascent and descent 
from dusk to dawn, making a beautiful crescent from 
Switzerland to the sea. There are white lights, green 
and red, and whiter, bursting into red and changing 
again, and blue bursting into purple drops, and reds fad- 
ing into green. It is all like the end of a beautiful world. 
It is only horrible when you remember that every colour 
is a signal to waiting reinforcements of artillery, and God 
help us if we are caught in the open, for then up go a 
thousand reds, and hundreds of rifles and machine guns 
are emptied against us, and all amongst us shells of every 
calibre are thrown, shouting destruction and death. We 
can do nothing but fiing ourselves into the first shell-hole 
and wonder as we wait where we will be hit. 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 205 

6. Preparing Jor the front — and 
remembering Mothers' Day: 

Dear Mother, — I am having a great time talking 
French now. You see, neither my landlady nor any of 
the people here understand a word of English, so it is 
up to me to " parlez-vous " with them a little. It comes 
pretty easy, especially as I never did take any more 
interest in anything in my life than I am taking in this 
French. You need n't worry about me now, for I am 
as healthy as can be and the battle line is quite a way off. 

We are kept busy from 5:30 a.m. to 10:00 or 12 : 00 at 
night. This soldier's life over here is no baby's job. We 
are "hiking" ten miles a day under heavy pack and drill- 
ing about five and one-half hours, which is equivalent, to 
eighteen or twenty miles a day. After this we officers 
have to censor mail, do the routine company work, and 
study two hours every night. The men are standing up 
remarkably well. They are all well and happy and like 
our treatment in billets. The French people treat us 
like guests all the time. 

This is Mothers' Day, and I ran across a little quota- 
tion out of a book presented to me just before I sailed: 
"God could not be everywhere, so He made Mothers, 
God bless them. " That is how I feel. Mother. There is 
no use in my trying to express my feeling any better. 

7. A French soldier of eighteen to his parents 
on starting for the front: 

I believe that, thanks to this war. War will collapse 
once for all. It is worth while to give one's life, actually 
or figuratively, for such an idea. 

I think also, as you do, that this war should be a war of 
liberation for the oppressed. Besides, I am certain (and 
here, too, the Work to be accomplished is a work of 



206 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Justice) that this war w-ill mean the triumph of democracy, 
the defeat of the ridiculous and criminal regime of hier- 
archy^ and pri\^lege. 

It would even be worth while — more than that, it 
would be one's duty — to take up anns to drive out the 

foe from France and Belgimn But I see 

farther than that. 

The great result must be a change of mentality through- 
out the world, salutary not only for Germany, but for 
each of us. For these reasons, I feel that this is not a war 
between countries, but a war of Himianity against violence 
and e\al. 

We must look above the means employed and fix our 
gaze boldly on the future and the humanity which will 
come after us. To kill, to wound — that is indeed hor- 
rible! Let us recognize that we must do it, that it is 
ine\itable now for the sake of the future of the world. 
No one sees better than I the hideousness of the means. 
But that does not prevent our looking higher and farther; 
and only he whose horizon is a vast one can see all that is 
grand in this war. 

W^o of us, before such a Work, will draw back on 
account of moral or material difficulties? I repeat boldly : 
this day should be for you and for me a day of profound 
joy. 

So I go away \\ith a conscience at ease; and that is 
what matters. 

8. From a marine luho afterward fell 

near Chateau-Thierry: 

IMy dear Father, — I just wanted to WTite you a letter 
on your birthday. I don'-*- know when I will be able to 
mail it, but \\ill take a chance an^^^ay. 

I want to thank you as your son. You have always 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 207 

been to me the best father a man could wish. I want to 
thank you for the gift of a clean, strong, and vigorous 
body that can ser^'e America in her need. Most of all I 
want to thank you for the long years of self-denial that 
made my education possible, for the guidance and teach- 
ing that kept me straight through the days of my youth, 
for the counsel ever freely given when asked, and for all 
the noble things in your example. 

I surely hope that you will celebrate many more birth- 
days and that I shall be home for the next one. Also 
may the coming years bring to you wider fields of ser- 
vice and honor, strength to perform your work, and in 
the end peace, contentment, and quiet rest. 

Your son, a soldier of the United States, salutes you, 
with love and devotion. 

9. A corporal of field artillery 
to his brother in Indiana: 

You asked me some time ago to get you small souvenirs 
from the front, and yesterday I had the opportunity, for 
in a big air battle I saw a German plane falling to the 
ground a short distance from us, and I gave chase, and 
procured the enclosure. You may not know just what 
part of the machine it was, but it is a part of the rubber 
tire. 

It will talk for itself, as to how the machine was on fire ; 
and I may inform you that the occupants consisted of a 
captain and his assistant. The captain jumped from the 
machine, or maybe he fell when it was about a half mile in 
the air, and the other occupant was still in the seat when 
it landed, but had his hand parallel to his forehead, and 
we are of the opinion that he committed suicide, as his 
pistol lay in the bottom of the machine. It was all I was 
able to procure, and I procured it under many difficulties, 

15 



208 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

but as sure as I live, it came from a German airplane which 
was in battle above our heads, and downed amid flames. 
The airplane itself looked as if it was a captured one, as 
it contained some American mechanism, also some Eng- 
lish. The piece of rubber, when I received it-, was fresh 
from the burn, but I suppose by the time it reaches you, 
the odor will have evaporated. The tire was of German 
make, as German reading could be recognized on it. 
The Allies are sure superior in the air, for they are 
downing them mighty fast these days, especially the last 
few days in our neighborhood. Of course I was not 
allowed to go up to it immediately, as the machine con- 
tained bombs and machine gun bullets, also a camera 
which was not damaged in the least. 

lo. After three years, this Canadian soldier 
takes things as they come: 

And speaking of wakes, I was awake myself the other 
night in my hut and the Gothas were whirring over head 
and Fritz was pulling the string every now and then. It 
was pitch-dark and a big Bertha had just shaken all crea- 
tion, when I overheard two " blimey s" fanning buckwheat 
while they hunted a shell-hole. 

"Where are yer. Bill?" asked one. 

"I'm 'ere," says Bill. 

"Where's 'ere?" says his pal. 

"'Ow the blinkin' 'ell do I know where *ere is?" says 
Bill. 

Just then Fritz put one alongside my hut and snufled 
out all the candles, but thanks to the good old soft mud — 
and how we have cussed that mud! — I am writing to you, 
Old Top, to-night. I expect to be on the hike again in a 
day or so, I know not where and I do not care. All 
places look alike to this old kid. They can set me down 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 209 

in a field of mud and inside of forty-eight hours I have 
a home fit for a prince, or a ground-hog — sometimes 
I am living several feet under ground and at other times I 
am living in a tent, a hut, a stable, barn, shed, and, when 
in luck, in some deserted chateau. 

II. A lieutenant of field artillery 
tells of a night expedition:^ 

It started one pitch-black night when I took Supply 
and Headquarters of the Second Battalion on a long hike 
to entrain for parts unknown. At the last minute they 
turned over a section or two from each battery so I had 
about as much as a battery to pile out into the night with. 

It was glorious. You could n't see a thing, and all you 
could hear were the wagons crushing off the invisible road, 
and my beloved mule-skinners raising their voices to 
Heaven in heroic Gargantuan curses. 

The major who gave me the job said I had to break 
the record in getting there and in entraining, and, by 
gosh! we did it — with the odds and ends of the regi- 
ment. I even had a dentist whom I made help load 
mules and a doctor who drove a four-line hitch and swore 
better even than my wagon corporal. 

We were to start loading at 4:00 a.m. and we pulled in 
at three instead, after a long rest on the road, where my 
rolling kitchen (after threatening to explode and give 
away the whole position) served us hot coffee and steak. 

We had to wait while the people ahead finished entrain- 
ing, but that gave me time to water the horses and put a 
few men under arrest and generally get things straight- 
ened out. 

Then we pinned back our ears and went to it. I 



^From Letters from an American Son to His Father, by Curtis Wheeler. 
Copyright. 191 8. Used by special permission of the publishers, The 
Bobbs-Merrill Company. 



210 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

loaded horses at five places at once, mules at another, 
materiel at two, and rations and forage at another. There 
wasn't much racket, and while it looked rather confused 
it really worked out surprisingly well. I think I must have 
walked miles that night with a long whip in one hand and 
a flashlight in the other (sort of modern Simon Legree), 
prodding men out of dark corners where they had dropped 
to snatch a few seconds' sleep. 

I recall having been decently civil to only one human 
being and that was the Major, who rode up to know how 
things were going. To him I smiled beatifically, waved 
my arm at the wild whirl dimly visible in the dark, and 
said everything was going very nicely. 

He told me I was a damn liar, also smiled, and, like a 
gentleman, went away again to let me work it out. As 
it turned out, we came under the wire a half hour ahead 
of the nearest outfit. We were able to serve out a piping 
hot breakfast, and let all hands turn in to get some sleep 
an hour before the train pulled out. 

My word, but wasn't it blissful to lie back on the gas 
masks and junk, and know that you had a good long "rest 
ahead ! Of course we had to pry horses apart at the stops, 
and all the usual things happened, but we didn't lose 
anything and came through in quite decent order. 

We detrained after dark again with a lot of new and 
rather nervous officers standing around and telling us 
what to look out for. The reverse process was easier, of 
course, but I was held up at the end by an ungodly 
quantity of forage, which I had to invent transportation 
for. This took time, so I broke no records this time. I 
relieved my mind on my orderly. He went off a bank 
backwards in the dark, horse on top, and I cursed out 
his supposedly dead body until he and his horse climbed 
up together, both rather subdued. 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 211 

Then we moved out, all a bit stiff and hungry, and 
hiked, and hiked, and hiked. We had a wooden guide 
with us. He looked quite imposing in occasional flashes 
of light — battered helmet, long drooping mustaches, 
jutting chin, calm profile, enormous horse, quite like one 
of the cuirassiers of Milhaud who went up the slope of Mt. 
St. Jean. But he knew absolutely nothing. 

Well, anyhow, we got there eventually, and W 

met us with a cane and an English accent and was rather 
vague about billets, and I raised my voice and cursed 
anew. And he was as charmingly imperturbable as he 
always is, under fire or anywhere else, and eventually I 
found places for all the horses and all the mules and all 
the men and the materiel, except myself. So I crawled 
into a fish-wagon on to a sack of oats, and became bliss- 
fully unconscious. 

12. A boy from Massachusetts writes his father 
concerning French farming: 
Where I was stationed before moving to this front, the 
people were haying. They have fine horses, but queer 
rigs. All the wagons, even to the two-wheeled dump carts, 
have brakes and old-style "Deering" mowing machines. 
They put a strap around the horse's neck and fasten it to 
the yoke and hitch the inside chain to the opposite whiffie- 
tree. If the machine clogs, they never back up ; just clean 
it out, crack the whip, and away the horses go. The 
French hay rakes are just the opposite of ours. They 
keep the foot on the lever except when they want to 
dump the hay. I have ridden on one. It is good to get 
onto the old job again. The scythes are like our bush 
scythes. When they haven't a grindstone, they pound 
out the nicks in the scythe with a hammer and iron and 
then smooth it up with a bit of rock. 



212 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

You ought to see the way they drive pigs. They use 
dogs to help. And when a shepherd takes his sheep out 
to pasture he goes along the street and blows a horn and 
every one turns out the pigs and sheep. The shepherd 
has a long-lash whip and drives them like cows. It takes 
a Frenchman to crack a whip. 

There's a wheelwright whom I watched working when 
I hadn't anything else to do. He liked to have us around 
because we helped him and that saved him money. I 
saw him put a rim on a wheel. He got the lumber and 
sawed it out by hand on a band saw worked by two 
handles. He was two days and a half at it and certainly 
did a swell job. He got forty francs (nearly $8.00). We 
boys helped do his haying. 

People live in groups of stone houses and drive out to 
their farms to work. Each village has a church with a 
tall spire; approaching a village you always see the 
spire first. The people all wear hobnailed shoes to work, 
and everybody works. 

13. From a New Jersey engineer: 

Dear Mother and Dad, — I am more and more 
delighted with this country. The people are friendly 
and helpful, but it is only when we speak French very 
slowly that we make each other understand. 

I suppose you still hear of how the American engineers 
refuse to keep out of the scrap over here. One regiment 
of us stepped over the top right into an attacking line 
of boches, and hit them so heavily that they retreated. 
When an engineer gets angry he can show things to the 
doughboys. 

I enjoy myself most when I can take walks out into 
the country and mix with the French. A few of them 
still think Americans must be ignorant backwoodsmen. 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 213 

I enjoy talking to the children. I have teased them by 
asking, in as serious a manner as possible, if they are 
Germans. Instead of hitting me, as I deserve, they deny 
it indignantly, and explain so patiently that they are 
French. They are all to the good. 

I will have my picture taken with a trench helm.et and 
gas mask on and send it home. And I should like very 
much to have the home paper. We have the Stars and 
Stripes and several papers here that publish English 
editions, but they give almost no sporting news. It will 
be great if they hold the world series over here. 

I ran into an old man the other day who was not in 
favor of the American troops being here. He asked me 
what part of French territory we were going to get 
for our services. I told him we would not take all nor 
any part of the country as a gift. Then I told him about 
America — until he declared he would go to America as 
soon as possible. 

I am in perfect health, and try to keep so, realizing 
that is the patriotic thing to do. Love to each one. 

14. An Illinois hoy is enthusiastic: 

Gosh! I sure was glad to get the batch of mail that's 
just come. It makes me feel so darned glad that I'm 
over here that I wouldn't trade my place for anything. 

And let me tell you right here, Mother dear, that you 
or anybody else at home can't know what real patriot- 
ism, real love of country, is. You haven't any idea. 
Why, you can't imagine what a great, wonderful country 
the old United States is. You can't realize what she 
stands for and means to the human race until you get a 
good perspective. 

When I am standing retreat at night and hear "The 
Star-Spangled Banner" played, the first thing that comes 



214 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

to my mind is the Statue of Liberty; then our wonderful 
cities, New York, Chicago, San Francisco ; then Washing- 
ton and President Wilson and the wonderful cause that all 
our millions of Americans are willing to give up every- 
thing for. Mother, we're lucicy merely to have been born 
Americans. Talk about waves up your spine! It's 
enough just to get over here in Europe and look back 
over miles of water at the biggest type of nation, based on 
liberty and justice, that can be conceived. Why, Mother, 
that Statue of Liberty and the American flag stand for 
everything that is worth while in life. 

Since I've got over here I feel more pity than anything 
else for the birds that are still at home sporting silk shirts. 
I'd rather be hanged for murder than be in their shoes. 
I figure that I'm the luckiest fellow in the world to be 
able to stand up as a soldier here in France and be a part 
of the greatest country engaged in the most honorable 
thing a country ever undertook. We have all waked up 
to what the words "United States of America" mean. 

End of speech for to-night! 

15. How the war was won for democracy: 

In your last letter you say : "You write like a different 
boy." Why, Father, I am different! How could I 
be anything else? I have been over here now for seven 
months. In that time I have lived seven years. I 
have seen aspects of life that I never dreamed of: that 
never occurred to me, in my sheltered life, as existing in this 
world. I have come to know men as I should never know 
them at home. I have learned a respect for discipline, 
a regard for authority that it shames me now to look back 
and see how I lacked. 

You talk over there about fighting for democracy! 
Why, my dear father, we have won the war for democracy 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 215 

already so far as thousands of our men are concerned. 
You can't live this kind of a life over here that I have 
lived now for all these months, under all kinds of condi- 15 
tions and with all kinds of men, and not have the walls of 
your mind stretched until they almost break, without 
learning a lesson in democracy ! That is one of the finest 
things that this experience has taught me. Honestly, 
when I think of how I used to look down, snippy-like, at 20 
some of the fellows in college who were working their way 
through, and who I and others like me thought were 
beneath us, and when I recall the fool discussions that we 
used to have whether this chap or that fellow was or was 
not "good enough" for our "frat" — all based on super- 25 
ficial or so-called social or equality grounds — it makes 
me wonder how I could have been such a blatant ass! 
I don't wonder that one college man said to me the other 
day: "I hate to think of this war suddenly stopping 
and my father insisting that I return to college. Of 30 
course I would refuse, but would my father see it, I 
wonder? Think of returning to that soft and sheltered 
life, with its fool 'proms' and silly house parties and 
inconsequential 'events.' My lord, Fred, I couldn't go 
back ! I should choke in such an atmosphere ! " I know 35 
this is a bit hard on you. Father, as a college trustee, but, 
believe me, I feel the same way, and so does every fellow 
over here that I have talked with. 

16. A judge-advocate prefers to stay 
until it is finished: 
The real bugaboo of human life is boredom, and the 
army in the field is singularly free from it. Out in the 
trenches there is always the expectation of something 
happening — even pestiferous insects furnish hunting 
material. Then, again, whether you are a private or an 5 



2i6 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

officer you "can get together with your equals in rank and 
scandaHze your superiors — taking, of course, excellent 
care that they don't hear you. 

In regard to your hope that I may be sent home for 
duty in the United States. Not for me! The general 
staff officers who are being sent home for instructions in 
exchange for others are the sorest set of men I ever saw. 
No judge-advocate majors are needed in Memphis, 
Tennessee. Why any healthy male person would want 
to be in America now when he might be in France is 
beyond me. Everybody of the male sex from home 
under forty is either here or coming, and I can sit out in 
front of my portable office in this obscure village and see 
the best specimens of every nation go by. It is the crisis 
of the biggest event in the world. I don't want to go 
back till I can go for keeps, and that is when this show is 
over. It is touch and go with France. We've got to win, 
and we will win shortly, but the idea of a person six feet 
tall and weighing i8o pounds prancing around the United 
States lecturing is nauseating, positively. I shall come 
home, and just revel in my home, when this is over, but 
not till then. And that's the way all the men feel, too. 
I don't believe there is one man in ten thousand who 
wants to come home till this thing is finished. 

I J. A French officer to a friend at home: 

You say this to your American friends : It is impossible 
to imagine a more perfect understanding of one another 
than now exists between the French and the American 
poilus. 

The reason for their ready cameraderie is easy to find : 
its base is mutual respect. When the Yankees first 
came our poilus looked with a little distrust on these 
troops with their elaborate equipment and all their 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 217 

spending money: we waited to see what they would be 
like in action. Well, they have been there and they 
have shown extraordinary nerve and guts. When sur- 
prised by the boche in a recent raid they defended them- 
selves like wild men — even with their feet and fists. The 
boche did not take a single prisoner. American patrols 
are models of coolness and ingenuity. Under bombard- 
ment they do not give way, and that is test enough. 
They have not the silly vanity that thinks it can't be 
"shown"; on the contrary, tliey ask questions whenever 
they get the chance, and learn how to do things better 
next time. 

Their conception of discipline shocks us a bit. Here's 
a case in point: The other day an American driver was 
trotting down a steep hill with his four mules. The 
harness broke and the animals ran away. Very skill- 
fully the driver managed so that he drove into some 
trees and stopped his team, but one mule was smashed 
against a tree. The American got down from his seat, 
cool as a cucumber, examined his beast, then tranquilly 
drew and fired his revolver — and drove on. If you 
could have seen the look on the faces of our men ! They 
talked of it for days. Had such a mishap happened to 
us, we'd have been swamped under all the reports and 
statements ! 

I have seen a few of their officers in a little village near 
the lines. The village people are strong for them. 

iS. A New Zealand soldier is cheerful: 

Away out there in New Zealand, Mother, no doubt, is 
worrying and worrying about me — worrying, waiting, 
and hoping. Here in France, with fourteen thousand 
miles between us, I'm sitting in a damp old dugout scrib- 
bling in a perfectly contented frame of mind. I've quite 



2i8 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

forgotten about th* big, fat beetle that tried to rest in 
my ear as I lay sleeping last night, and I have quite for- 
given the rat that coursed over my face after dining on 
my scanty store of biscuits. Also the ton or so of bombs 
some Gothas dropped in our vicinity just before dawn 
has been tossed into the limbo of almost forgotten things. 
And why are all these things possible? Just because one 
has that comfortable feeling of duty done. Another 
reason, too, is that there were onions in the midday stew. 
Just compare the two of us— dear old mum, away back in 
New Zealand, worrying, worrying, because war to her 
must always be terrible. War to her means naught else 
but shattered bodies, terrible wounds, and awful suffer- 
ings, and because of these thin^, and because her son is 
exposed to all these terrors, she worries and worries 
while she sits and waits. Her son meanwhile, fitter and 
better physically than ever before in his life, is happy and 
quite ready to meet anything that may arise. 

I wonder if you can follow all this. What I want to 
convey is that out here one takes all things as being in the 
day's work. One's mind seldom dwells on the terrors of 
war, and, because of all this, war to us hasn't half the 
terrors it has for our women-folk who remain behind. If 
it were not for the roar of the guns to-day, one could 
almost think that war was an unheard-of thing. 'Way in 
the rear of this position I can hear a band plajdng. 

A few moments ago they were playing a ragtime med- 
ley, and I caught the strains of "Over There." Do you 
know it? It's all about the Americans or "Yanks" 
coming "Over There," and it is highly popular in the 
trenches, not only on account of its tuneful lilt, but 
because the Yanks who are here come up to expectations 
in every detail. I've met hundreds of them, and what 
bonny boys they are — always cheerful, and always eager 



LETTERS FROM THE. FIGHTING MEN 219 

to learn all the arts of war. They've been tried out, too, 
•in the line, and I can honestly state that they are the 
equal of any troops here. 

Poor old Fritz! Still another mistake goes down to 
his account. First the British were a nation of store- 
keepers, blind to aught else but their own comfort. Then 
America was mentioned. Pooh! they'd never get here 
in time ! And, even if they did, armies were not created 
in days; years of service were necessary if they were 
expected to have anything like an equal chance with the 
sons of the Fatherland. And the lords of Kultur dis- 
missed all thought of America without a misgiving. And 
what is the result? Here in France are hundreds of 
thousands of lithe young Americans, trained, not in the 
hard school of Germany, but in a free, democratic country; 
all worthy sons of fathers whose grandfathers once 
humbled Britain, true descendants of a people who, 
without military training, gained independence for what 
is now one of the greatest countries in the world — the 
United States of America. Thousands more are coming 
over here every week, I hear. When they are all here, the 
war will end in two months. You mark my word ! 

ig. A marine tells of refugees 
and destruction: 
I am now in a French town a few miles back of the lines. 
It was evacuated by the French people at a few hours' 
notice. Their cattle, dogs, horses, chickens, and personal 
belongings are still here. We even found half-cooked 
food on the stoves, showing that they left at a few 
moments' notice. Many such towns fell into German 
hands. They are nothing but a pile of bricks and stones 
now. One of the most pitiful sights I have ever seen was 
the flight of the refugees a few weeks ago. We met them 



220 THE WORLD' AND DEMOCRACY 

as they were going to the rear and as we were advancing. 
Old men and women, children, babies, and all; many who 
had owned wonderful homes (I am now quartered in a 
regular mansion), and who had to leave with nothing in 
the world and with no idea where they would spend the 
night or get the next meal. 

20. An Iowa btrdman has a chance 
to try his parachute: 
I had a chance to try my parachute yesterday and I 
thought I would tell you about it and if you think best 
you can tell Mother. Murphy and I went up to observe 
for a small attack about noon. There were quite a 
number of clouds in the sky at the time and the men on 
the ground could not keep very close tab on the enemy 
planes and one succeeded in getting pretty close to us 
before we knew it. They pulled us right down to 300 
meters and held us there, but the enemy came right on in 
spite of our machine guns and a barrage of anti-aircraft 
guns. He came slowly around until he was between us 
and the sun and then he drove at us, firing his machine 
gun all the time. Two bullets went through the basket 
and one passed through my parachute-case, which was 
slung on the side. We heard the bullets whistling past 
and decided that it was time to leave. I had the telephone 
head-set, so Murphy went first. He hung on the side 
and dropped and I watched him until his parachute 
opened, then I swung over the side and was all ready to 
let go when I discovered that I was straddling my rope 
and I had to crawl back in, straighten myself out, and 
climb over again. For some reason or other I didn't 
want to let go of that basket, but I thought "Here goes, " 
and dropped. I fell with a terrific speed for what seemed 
like an age, when suddenly the parachute opened and I 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 221 

was safe. I could see Murphy strung up by the neck Hke 
a jumping-jack about 100 yards away below me. He 
saw me and waved, and we both signaled back and forth 
and had a big time. I looked up at the balloon which had 
not 3^et burned. It was rolling around and diving 
because of the lack of ballast, when suddenly an incen- 
diary bullet hit the gas-bag and it went up in flames. 
We both landed in a wheat field. As I struck the ground 
I tried to run so that the parachute would not drag me, 
but there was a pretty strong wind and I v/as thrown 
and dragged about fifteen feet before I could cut myself 
loose. I was not hurt in the least and have had no 
ill effects. 

It is considered quite a thing in the French army to 
jump in the parachute, and the French company next to 
us gave a big dinner party last night to celebrate the 
affair. 

21. An Ohio private on returning 
from going ''over the top'' : 
When I got back to the rest billet my shirt and breeches 
were nothing but a bunch of rags. My hands had bled 
from blisters from ** digging in" — I was some sight, and 
had not much fight left in me. But if necessary, no doubt, 
I could have been game. You see I got a black eye from 
the dirt thrown by a shell. My helmet was blown to 
kingdom come, I had a bad place one side of my nose, 
two pieces of shrapnel in the right hand, and some lodged 
underneath my arm in the skin. They removed it all 
without cocaine, so it did not amount to much. I didn't 
even go back to the hospital. I stayed right there to get 
my revenge. However, I will always have one souvenir — 
the side of my nose makes me look different, but I am 
proud of it, and consider myself lucky 



222 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

The worst part of it all is when you return and all 
get together to see who's here and who's not. You've 
been like a big family, being together ever since you 
joined, eating in the same kitchen, sleeping in the same 
place, going through the same hardships and good times 
together, and you feel you know one another's mother 
and father as well as if you came from the same town — 
hearing so much of them, and seeing pictures of them. 
You've heard a pal talk about "my girl," and how he 
hopes to get back and marry her, and everyone seems 
like brothers, and when you find some of them didn't 
return, it is real hell, I tell you. 

22. A St. Louis officer tells why he is proud 
of being an American: 

I have seen them — hundreds and thousands of them — 
in their rest billets, before they went into the line, during 
battles, and, above all, after they came out of the line. 
And oh, how proud I am to be an American! For these 
men have "been there," and have looked death in the 
face and have seen what a little thing it is. All those 
conceits and selfish desires of men who dwell with men 
in our vaunted civilization come to be little things out 
here. Everything is so different — so big — that the 
little things just slip out of sight. 

This war is not turning out hardened young men who 
can look upon suffering and misery unmoved. I have 
seen acts of gentleness and self-sacrifice over here that 
were even above that accredited to women, the most 
gentle and the sweetest of God's creatures. I have seen 
men who, in civilian life, would have refused a crust to 
the beggar on the street give their emergency ration to a 
total stranger. One of my own men, after fighting four- 
teen hours, worked as a volunteer stretcher-bearer for eight 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 223 

hours, making trip after trip across a field that was being 
torn up with shell-fire. And all this time he was helping 
carry out men whom he had never seen before. And 
these are the men who are coming home, big in faith, 
washed of the sordidness and smallness of life, strong in 
body and with a great love of God and their country. 

23. A Michigan lieutenant has a good opinion 
of the French soldier: 

The French soldier is magnificent. I have seen quite 
a few. All show the marks of much suffering, and yet 
their spirit is as high as in the first days of the war. The 
French soldier and our troops get along wonderfully. 
In the cafes you will see a group of our men and the 
French, each with a dictionary in his hand, telling the 
other what a good man he is. 

24. Report of a memorable Christmas evening 
in a French village:^ 

There was a band concert in the square ending in a 
blare of glory, just at dusk, with "The Star-Spangled 
Banner" and Mr. Rouget de ITsle's masterpiece. I 
should like to paint for you the picture, but you can 
imagine it as it must have looked. There was the sun 
going down behind the black church-spire, the shadows 
on the hills around all turning indigo and lavender against 
the snow, the crowd of people about the square, kiddies 
dancing and playing on the outskirts, women in the 
center, hands under their shawls for warmth, babies in 
wooden sabots at their skirts, French soldiers, en per- 
mission, mostly infantry, with here and there the rakish 
blue tam-o'-shanter of a Chasseur Alpin or the red fez 



20 



1 From Letters from an American Son to His Father, by Curtis Wheeler. 
Copyright, 1918. Used by special permission of the publishers, The 
Bobbs- Merrill Company. 

16 



224 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

and crescent of a Chasseur d'Afrique, and, wandering 
through it all, benevolent, kindly, care-free, that greatest 
institution of modern times — the American buck private. 
With his hands in his pockets, jingling "bokoo Frankies, " 
a Christmas quid in his cheek, and a Christmas breath 
floating mistily out into the frosty air, no Roman emperor 
has anything on him. He has a nod and a "bong joo" 
for everybody, he gets a smile in return, from the withered 
old gran'mere in the white cap and shawl to the flaxen- 
haired lassie with the cold blue eyes and the warm white 
smile and the cameo features and the husky shoulders 
and legs, who rides by, sitting side wise on a huge white 
horse, her little sabots stuck straight out in front of her 
and her nose in the air. 

The band was still going to it when I left to keep 

an appointment to tea. Monsieur M had very 

kindly asked me in to have a Christmas cake with him, 
and I was anxious to see what a really decent better- 
class French home would be like. Monsieur M is 

now, like many other people in this town, a refugee from 
further north, but with a difference. He lives with a 
relative — chez lui, so to speak — and is therefore sort of a 
king of the refugees. Before the war he was a big contrac- 
tor at a place which is now as historic as Little Round 
Top, and he still has a very considerable fortune left to 
help his townspeople. 

I found them all sitting around the fire waiting for me — 
two kids, the old gran'mere, the man himself, and his 
little wren of a wife. He represents an entirely different 
class of Frenchman from the type around here (such as 
my present host). He has the long, straight, high- 
bridged nose, the broad forehead, the clear, wide-open 
eyes, the flexible, expressive hands, that we have learned 
to recognize as the true French type at its best. 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 225 

It was all quite formal at first. And you don't know 
what a relief it was to be with people who knew enough 
to be formal once in a while. I bowed and mine host 
bowed and his little wife smiled at me and pulled up a 
chair for me at the table. Then we sat down; there was 
a formal talk and the tea began. It consisted, first, of 
black pudding, or blood sausage. Then there were 
Lorraine tarts and honey cakes and a kind of light bis- 
cuit and some old, old cobwebby bottles full of a vin that 
never grew in this pays or this generation. After this 
was over mine host brought forth a jug of Mirabelle, 
which is a very delightful cordial made from prunes, and 
we fell to talking about everything. It was a delight to 
talk with these people, their accent was clear as a bell 
and as easy to understand as English. They were so 
quick and responsive that, after those country people, 
it was like talking to a different race. 

Moreover, and above all, my bearded Hermes did not 
seize this opportunity to complain to me of the doings of 
some of my men or the evil habits of my horses. Instead, 
he talked of Clemenceau, and the situation in Italy, and 
the movements of troops he himself had seen, and what 
his friend who is in the Assembly had said about some 
one else in the Assembly who is not his friend, and so 
forth. And the little lady asked me questions about 
America, what Christmas was like there, and were my 
parents living, and was I married, and would I like the 
recipe for the honey cake, and what did the crossed guns 
on my collar mean, and was the American helmet as 
comfortable as the French casque, and would there really 
be five million American boys here by June ! 

The girl was really a young lady and it was beneath her 
dignity to talk to a sous-lieutenant, but there were some 
things she wanted to know. One was, Are American 



226 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

girls really all beautiful, besides being fabulously wealthy? 
Another was, How long had I been talking French and 
did I find it difficult to understand the patois of these 

85 people here? And the last was a wish that I had been 
able to visit them in their real home devant la guerre. 
Amen. 

The boy, a thick-set youngster with a big square head 
and quick-witted eyes, opened up last, but was full of 

90 confidences about a friend of his who was a sous-officier in 
the Blue Devils. And he described with great interest 
the blowing up of their home, and the eclats of the ohus, 
and how the Turcos cheered as they ran, and what 
knives they carried, and what he was going to be after he 

95 had gone to St. Cyr, and how droll it was to watch the 
American soldats helping the French farmers kill their 
cochons. 

It was all very pleasant and cozy and homelike and I 
wouldn't have missed it for a great deal. It made one 

100 feel quite like a gentleman again instead of a combina- 
tion of Nero, Uriah Heep, and "Gyp the Blood." And 
the strange part of it all, I mused to myself as I plowed 
home in the night, was that a week before this same man 
had gone for one of our battery commanders with a long 

105 sharp knife, and this call of mine was the last stage -of a 
rather difficult patching-up process. It is all a question 
of understanding, I reckon. 

25. A sergeant oj artillery writes 

between shots: 

We just received some more mail and read it between 

shots. We have suspended firing for the present, so I 

will take this time to drop you a word or two. We are 

steadily pushing forward. The other day we were in a 

5 position near an old ruined chateau. In the afternoon 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 227 

our infantry had advanced out of our range, and as we 
could not move forward until evening, the afternoon was 
practically free. With a couple of fellows I visited the 
above-mentioned chateau, where the boche had wired 
the entire building and placed dynamite in various 
places. This low-down trick was forestalled, however, 
by the French, who knew the German methods by this 
time, and they cut the wires. The interior of the building 
was turned upside down. The furniture, some of it the 
antique, hand-carved variety, was broken and upset or 
thrown around. The library, a room completely filled 
with books of all descriptions, was topsy-turvy. A suit 
of armor was in another room. Another was piled high 
with German shells left in the rush. One couldn't help 
thinking what a wonderful place it was before the inva- 
sion. This building was dated 1539. In the rear was 
the old castle. I could find no date, but some said iioo. 
The four towers were about all that was left standing. 
This castle stood upon a hill, covering about one-half 
an acre, surrounded on all sides by steep walls seventy- 
five feet high, and at the bottom was what must have been 
a moat. An arched bridge spanned this moat, a distance 
of about seventy-five feet. Remnants of the old outer 
wall still remain. One of the towers of this old castle 
had served its purpose to the Germans. A ladder leading 
to the tower showed that it had been used for observa- 
tion. It certainly was a marvelous place for observation, 
too. We were up there, and over the almost level 
country we could see for miles around. 

26. An engineer has high praise 
for the French: 
We had a dandy dinner the Fourth of July, a ball 
game in the afternoon, and a speaker at night. On the 



228 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

fourteenth of July, a French holiday, I had an invitation 
to dinner with my French friends. When I tell you I had 
the greatest and best meal I have had since leaving home, 
please believe me-, and that's saying a lot, for I had some 
fine meals when I was in Paris last. 

The dinner was served in courses, each one better than 
the last; three different kinds of wine and coffee and 
French cigarettes as a finish. You have to take off your 
hats to the French — they know how to feed. Remember, 
all these things are cooked in an open fire place. It's 
wonderful how they can cook such things as cake and 
currant pie, and they were delicious. These people think 
the world of me, and the mother called me her "Ameri- 
can godchild." They are always after me to come 
and eat, but I don't like to go very often because 
they are poor and it is an added expense to feed me. 
Still they will not admit it. Just like these people — if 
they like you, they will give you the very shirt off their 
back. 

The French are like a different race of people now, 
since the last drive at Chateau-Thierry. They now see 
the metal the Americans are made of. They have often 
heard people speak of the American manhood, but never 
had much of an example until now. 

2 7 . A lawyer corporal from Louisiana 
pays tribute to the French: 
We are in the thick of it, by the side of the glorious 
French army, which for four long and bloody years has 
been the bulwark of the civilized world. Their deeds of 
valor and their consummate skill will be recorded in the 
archives of history. The French soldiers have shed imper- 
ishable luster upon all the world. Their sufferings and 
their indomitable courage, their sacrifices, will make one 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 229 

of the saddest, and one of the brightest, pages in the his- 
'tory of the world. We have come to their rescue and are 
fighting with them to preserve their Hberties and our own. 

28. An Oklahoma sergeant expresses his joy 
at our making good: 
I just want to say something about how we depend 
upon you folks at home. Before the first of July and 
necessarily before the announcement that a million Ameri- 
can soldiers from the dear old United States had set foot 
on this beautiful land to fight for the great cause, we 
Americans who were over here had been bragging for 
eight months about what we were going to do, how much 
money had been raised by the United States, how many 
soldiers were coming to France, guesses as to how many 
were here already — in fact, just talking about our great 
land and its resources. But when one morning we saw 
by the headlines in the papers that actually one million 
soldiers had landed over here we were glad enough to cry. 
It had a marvelous effect upon our French comrades — 
hitherto they had listened with only their natural polite- 
ness to our tales, agreeing to everything we said, but 
when it came out in the French newspapers that we had 
sent a million men to France, and they were piling in so 
fast they could hardly take care of them at this end, they 
nearly went wild. Everything was Americain, Ameri- 
cain! And then when this big drive on the part of the 
boche was turned into a Logan County track-meet, 
nothing could quell the feeling that had sprung up. You 
can depend on it, there are no fighters like the Americans 
— I can say this without handing myself any bouquets, as I 
am not fighting, only the flies; but I am stating the fact, 
that on our particular front, during the heaviest bombard- 
ment ever pulled off except at Verdun, our boys never 



230 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

gave way one foot, and not only that, but they actually 
destroyed whole regiments and one division by artillery 
and machine-gun fire. They repulsed seven attacks one 
morning. We have almost begun to sing: "When it's 
over, over here, " but common sense tells us differently. 

29. From a village near the front a French mother 
writes to an American mother: 

Doubtless you are going to be very much surprised on 
receiving this letter, for we do not know each other. I 
know only that, like me, you are the mother of a soldier, 
for I have had the pleasure, quite recently, of lodging 
your son, and it is to fulfill the promise that I made him 
that I send you a few lines. 

Your son is truly charming, madame, and it is with 
great pleasure that we have welcomed him at our fireside, 
where for a few days he has taken the place of my eldest 
son, also an officer, who fell for France last year. 

Believe me, madame, it is with our whole hearts that 
we welcome your children and receive them, for do they 
not come to avenge ours and aid in liberating our country ? 

Our geographical situation places us almost at the edge 
of the invasion, 'and we have spent some very painful 
days and have seen very sad things. We thank God, 
however, who has spared us and sends us good and brave 
friends to aid in expelling the cursed boche. Among 
these, your son is one of the best, always ardent in 
accomplishing his duty, and I am truly happy that during 
the few days which he spent with us I have been able to 
give him a little joy. We will not forget either that he 
has been the first of the Allies who has sat at our fireside 
and that he has made us know your country. On leaving, 
your son said to me, "Write to my mother. " This is his 
wish realized. 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 231 

Good-by, madame. Receive with all my sympathy 
the expression of my best thought. 

30. A California airman writes 
of the fourteenth of July: 

I was in Paris on the fourteenth of July. It was a 
wonderful day in every way. The early morning was 
very dull and gray, but by the time the parade was 
started there was not a cloud in the sky. I never expect 
to see another spectacle like it unless I am fortunate 
enough to see an Allied entry into Berlin. Half the 
world — yes, more than that — was represented in line 
and represented by the best that each nation could bring 
forward. As the colors of each nation went by, Paris 
seemed to get more and more excited until I believed 
that they had surely reached the absolute heights of 
enthusiasm. 

English, Belgian, Italian, all of them took the city by 
storm, but away off down the line I heard a hum that 
steadily grew louder and sounded above all the rest of the 
noise, a hum that somehow or other got inside of me and 
made me stand a little straighter, and then about a block 
away I saw a flash of color, and oh! how wonderful it 
looked to me, for the color resolved itself into the ''Colors" ; 
and then, my dear people, I thought the heavens had 
broken loose. I have never in my life heard such an out- 
burst of noise. It was not the high shouting that one 
usually hears, but a roar that started away down and 
gradually increased until, when it broke, the very windows 
rattled. It sounded like the organized yell of a million 
rooters, and then just as quickly as it had started it died 
down, and amid an absolute silence and with every civilian 
hat off, every man in uniform at a stiff salute, the colors 
of the United States of America went by. 



232 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

It was awe-inspiring. It seemed to me in* every heart 
there was a blessing for that bit of bunting, and on every 
lip a prayer for its safety. I cannot describe my own 
feelings. I am not ashamed to admit that my eyes were 
far from dry, and many others were in the same condition. 
I wonder if that welcome was heard in Berlin, and, if so, 
whether some of the more prophetic did not understand 
it for what it was to them — the first mutterings of a 
storm that will break and destroy them. 

SI. A signal corps man writes of the 
famous drive of July i8: 

The battle itself was the most magnificent thing I have 
ever seen. If only you could have seen our splendid 
boys, how proud you would have been of them. Heads 
up, faces cold and stern as the steel they carried, they 
went across that wheat field, mowing down the hiunan 
harvest — on and on— up the hill — and over — to victory. 

There is keen sorrow in my heart for the loss of some 
of my best-loved pals, but I know they died without 
regret. I know that there is no sting in a death like 
theirs. And, some way, we think a lot less about the 
death of the body and a lot more about the everlasting 
life of the spirit than we ever did in civilian life. Sacrifice 
means nothing — suffering and pain are but trivialities 
— death itself is only a balking of our hearts' desire to be 
"in at the finish. " Nothing matters but the Cause. 

32. A Tennessee lieutenant tells of the 
greatest sight of his life: 

I will not speak of myself, but of something else which 
I must tell you, the greatest sight I've ever seen in my 
life, which occurred to-day: 

Shortly before nine o'clock this morning I was shaving. 



LETTERvS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 233 

My roommate had finished and gone outside. In a Uttle 
while he came back saying there were boche planes about. 
As this is not unusual, and as I wanted to get cleaned up, 
I continued my shaving while he talked to me from out- 
side our window. There is an American chasse (fighting) 
squadron on the same field with us. All during the day 
their machines are flying about, so, when I heard one 
leave the ground, and then another an instant later, I 
thought nothing of it. 

Before I could distinguish any additional lapse of time 
my roommate yelled that the Americans were in a scrap 
with Huns and that it seemed they were trying to machine- 
gim our hangars. With this I was running outside my 
room as fast I could with a towel still around my neck 
and lather partly over my face. 

Running a few feet from our barracks door (not more 
than twenty feet from the inside of our room) , I saw four 
planes, two German and two American, going to it, not 
more than 150 yards off the ground and almost directly 
over our heads. 

By this time I went another few feet to where I had 
a better view, because buildings had been in the way. 
Everybody else was outside, too, officers and personnel of 
our French squadron. 

The four fighters were circling and driving with their 
terrific motor roar about each other exactly like giant 
birds, working unceasingly every second for the purpose of 
gaining advantageous firing positions, it being possible 
for the c,hasse planes to shoot only in the direction of 
their flight because of the fixed position of the machine 
gun alongside the airplane's nose. 

And here the firing began with the American planes 
swooping in at the boche more like bulldogs than any- 
thing else, at a speed of not less than 150 miles per hour. 



234 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Even above the roaring mad hum -of the motors and the 
excitement on the ground the loud popping, ''crack, 
crack, pop, pop, pop, pat, pat, pop," of the firing-guns 
sounded. You will have to picture it to yourself, because 
it was a sight no human being could possibly describe in 
full detail. 

The maneuvering of the machines changed their point- 
ing directions, and machine-gun bullets started pattering 
viciously about fifty feet above our heads. 

At this point every eyewitness hunted for the nearest 
telephone post or house corners. As you well know, my 
legs are n't short, so be not surprised when I tell you that 
in the great scramble for cover some were still coming 
when I looked around. 

But the position of the planes changed again. Even 
as I looked one machine was swooping earthward in a 
mass of flames. Then the wild yell that went up as we 
saw on it the German cross ! 

Running with a portion of the crowd toward it I saw as 
we ran the flame die down apparently, but for only a 
second, almost instantly flashing up again and enveloping 
still more of the machine than before, as it continued its 
blazing path to the earth. As I arrived at the spot, 
Frenchmen who were nearer had gotten the injured pilot 
from the wreckage and were bringing him toward head- 
quarters. 

The other fight went on. For a moment it seemed that 
the American was dropping, but it was only in a nose 
dive under the Hun's tail. Then came the ripping 
report of his machine gun and immediately the crashing 
of the second bpche burying his nose in the ground, with 
the tail of his machine sticking up into the air. 

The distance between these two machines as they came 
down was no more than 400 yards and each point less 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 235 

than that from where I write. As I came back from the 
burned plane, the German from the other — an officer 
who could speak both French and English — was being 
brought up the road by another crowd, perfectly able to 
walk and not hurt in the least. 

To-day has been cloudy. The Hun story is that they 
were bringing their machines to Metz from some place 
back of the German lines and had lost their way in the 
fog, thus crossing the lines without knowing it, and as 
the topography around that town and this is similar 
they were coming in to land. This story sounds reason- 
able, the French officers think it probable, and personally 
from all indications I rather believe it to be true. How- 
ever, one can never be certain about a boche. 

Anyhow, one was entirely unhurt, the other had only a 
broken ankle and was burned some, but will recover all 
right. Such an ending is perfectly marvelous, and 
neither of our fellows was touched. 

33. A private tells of a night air attack 
and, incidentally, why he fights: 
We had one taste a few nights ago of what "Jerry, " as 
the boche is called, will do to a town which is inhabited 
by women and children. I was awakened by the staccato 
crack of a machine gun. For about a minute there was 
a silence which was almost uncanny. Then it seemed as 
if all the gates of the inferno had been opened. The hum 
of the enemy's airplane motors could be plainly heard, 
and we knew we were in for an aerial attack. The noise 
made by the falling bombs mingled with that of the 
barrage sent up by the anti-aircraft guns made the night 
hideous. Several of the bombs dropped only a few hun- 
dred yards from our billet, and the building certainly did 
shake. It was far from a pleasant experience, and only 



236 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

goes to show what the enemy would do to our own 
beloved country were he able to get over there. 

All of us hope that the war will soon end and that peace 
will once more reign over the earth. We have made 
sacrifices to come over here, but we are glad to do so in 
order to make the world a better place in which to live. 
This cannot be accomplished, however, until the enemy 
can be made to realize that the country for which he is 
fighting has not been appointed to win the world and 
that he cannot trifle with Uncle Sam and get away with 
it. When this has been accomplished we shall return 
to our own country to do our part in the big reconstruc- 
tion of our economic affairs. 

34. i4 Western corporal reports a ''stranger 
than fiction" true incident: 

Corporal Henry Johnson himself, who is convalescing 
at a near-by base hospital, rather unexpectedly dropped 
in at the Field Headquarters of the Press Section here 
and very willingly gave a vivid and awesome story of 
the event. I am going to try to offer it to you just as I 
heard it. 

Quite contrary to the well-known newspaper phrase, 
"told his story blushing and stammering as a schoolgirl, " 
Johnson gave a rapid and vivid story, inserting all the 
gestures of the fray. 

"Yessah, ma name's Johnson. Dis is Johnson, what's 
left of 'im. 

"Yah must a read all about Johnson and Robinson. 
Shure yah did, it was in all de papers. 

"Dere's a silver plate right dere [pointing to his left 
foot], yessir, right dere, they pushed a bayonet through 
ma laig an' shot me in de right arm. Dey want to send 
me home, but Ah ain't goin' home. Ah gonna stay here 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN " 237 

till ma company goes home. Ah'm as good a man as any 
of 'em. Dose Germans can't fight. 

" 'Twas a cloudy and rainy night, and me and ma 
pardner was at this here outpost. 'Bout two in de 
mornin' we see a bunch of Germans comin' at us. Ah 
figured maself as good a man as any of 'em an Ah says to 
ma pardner, *We's goin' to stick right here.' He sa^^s, 
'Ah'm with yah to de end. ' So 'stead of 'treatin' to our 
lines we cut loose grenades and fired away all our ammuni- 
tion. Robinson was wounded in de laig at de start and 
fell to de ground still throwing de grenades at de Huns. 
Two of 'em tried to carry 'way ma pardner on a stretcher. 
Ah took ma rifle, a French gun, just like dis, and hit a 
Dude right on de haid and broke the rifle right here. 

' ' Ah went after de Dudes carry in' way ma pardner. Ah 
reached for ma bowie [trench knife], and hit one feller 
right in de haid. I pulled it out and 'bout-faced all 
round and give it to nudder. 

"Ah took my pardner way from 'em and brought 'im 
back to the post. Den one of de Dudes comes at ma 
hollerin' 'Kumrad.' Kumrad, you say, Ah'm Kumrad 
all right. Ah '11 show you Kumrad. Yessah, and den 
de Germans, what was lef of 'em, beat it. Ah bandaged 
ma pardner with ma first-aid kit. 

"Den de lootenant comes runnin' in an says, 'Johnson, 
what's happened?' 

"Ah says, 'It's all over, lootenant.' 

"Ah had sixteen automatics and mo' stuff piled in 
front of ma. 

"Ah says, 'Go out dere an count dose Dudes.' 

"The lootenant takes his pocket light an' looks over 
the ground and comes back. 

" 'For Heaven's sake, Johnson, dere's twenty-four of 
'em out dere!' 



238 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

" 'Yessah, and if dey hadn't a got ma pardner here, 
day would a been a lot mo'.' 

''The lootenant says, 'Johnson, are you hurt?' 

"Ah says, 'No, sah.' 

" 'Yes, you is,' he says; 'look, youse all bloody.' 

" 'Oh,' Ah says, 'dat's from de Dudes.' 

"Yessah, Ah figured maself as good a man as any of 
dem, and if dey had n't got ma pardner we'd a cleaned 
up." .... 

Daily as Corporal Johnson strolls the streets of the 
village on his convalescent limp he is stopped by both 
French and Americans who congratulate him and inquire 
as to his heroic deed. He is becoming a popular character 
about the place, and many await the appearance of his 
partner, Robinson, to see the pair which scored such an 
extraordinary win against heavy German odds. 

35. A lieutenant oj a telegraph battalion 
relates a good spy story: 

Here's a yarn about a guy who would have had Brodie 
lashed to the mast if he'd put it across. I'll say he made 
a good trial anyway. At the beginning of the present 
drive a British major-general was directing movements 
of his division when a British staff car drove up and 
a "brass hat" got out. Reporting to the general, he said: 

"Sir, the division on your right has been forced back 
and your flank is in the air. Orders are that your division 
will fall back to this place, " indicating a point on the map 
some two miles in the rear. 

The general had nothing to do but obey, and was on 
the point of issuing orders to effect the retirement when a 
Canadian colonel standing near said to the staff officer: 

"That's funny. I've been on duty some time with 
that division and I don't remember you." 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 239 

The other chap allowed that was funny, that he had 
been there for some time; he knew all the units of the 
division, called their officers by their first names, and 
generally -had the dope. Still the Canuck was skeptical 
— he must have come from down near the New England 20 
border — and finally asked to see the officer's papers. 

Business of searching through pockets as for return 
check after intermission. 

Then the chap thought he had jolly well come away in 
such a hurry he'd forgotten 'em; beastly careless. The 25 
Canuck thought he'd jolly well have to be searched; 
beastly careful. They found papers all right; only they 
were written in that language which defines "treaty" as 
a "scrap of paper." 

Well, there was plenty of first-class material at hand 30 
for a firing-squad. The chauffeur was a Hun, too, so 
they had a little party, and the only thing they didn't 
shoot up was the car; that was returned to duty after 
being fumigated. 

36. A young lieutenant tells of work and play 
in a French fortress: 
After waiting, not very patiently, for more than two 
months, my mail was finally forwarded to me from my 
regiment and I had a very feast of letters, forty-eight all 
told. They should have been answered before, but I 
have been unavoidably busy, with the formations I have 5 
to attend and lectures to prepare, in addition to which I 
am staging Lord Dunsany's Night at an Inn for pro- 
duction on Friday night. There is much talent here, so 
we are to have original scenery painted by a New York 
artist, and original music, composed by a young Scotch 10 
composer, played by an orchestra of officers. 

I have met here an interesting chap, David R by 

17 



240 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

name, who is a social settlement worker at Hull House. 
His experiences there seem very interesting, and I have 
enjoyed hearing him recount them here. His work, it 
seems, is principally among the Slavs. 

The weather is abominable, rain and mud all the time. 
Shall be glad to get back to the snow of Vermont. 

37. Showing a scarcity of news: 

Dear Wife and Daughter, — Will write you a few 
lines to let you know I am well and hoping to find 
everyone at home the same. 

We had a battle with the Germans and drove them 
back five miles. We took a lot of prisoners, artillery, 
and machine guns, and are still driving them back. 

It is the first battle I have been in, but I didn't get 
excited and escaped without a scratch. It was an awful 
artillery and machine-gun fire. 

News is scarce, so will close, hoping to hear from you 
soon. 

From your loving husband. 

38, A Yankee officer who believes in his men: 

Dear Tommy, — This is from the line, with the square- 
heads sitting some hundreds of yards in front of me. All 
the same, the war is a stupid business, and terribly local; 
three hundred or so miles long and two to ten miles deep. 
Right now I'm tired. I've been under fire a long time. 
I've also been under gas. The Hun is gassing us a bit 
right now. 

I do as much talking about myself as if I'd been through 
Verdun. Actually, I've been lucky. Shells, gas, lice, 
rats, and bombing from planes, but as yet nothing has 
nicked me. I've been in command, in the line here, for 
over a month. I give the lie to the statistics. Some 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 241 

Optimist once worked out that the average life of a machine 
.gunner is something over two minutes. 

Your last letter was dated February 24. A lot has 
happened since. Then we were slopping through the snow 
on endless maneuvers, sleeping out in zero weather, 
drilling, hiking through the dark, and living in barns. 
Now it's wonderful weather; birds singing from the 
barbed wire; moonlight nights. It's like one of those 
posters we used to admire — poppies in the wheat, the 
brilliant white of the trenches in the grass, the pink of 
the villages opposite us in boche land. 

And I take my hat off to my raen. They may get drunk 
and swear and go absent and kick up trouble generally, 
but once in the line they sit tight, put up with anything, 
and go through hell without a word. Man for man, they 
can, I believe, outlive, outfight, outswear, outlaugh any 
army in the war. 

It's been a tremendous education to me, all this. The 
Star-Spangled Banner element doesn't exist here. There 
are no brass bands and cheering school children. It's all 
simply the day's work, to be finished quickly and if pos- 
sible quietly. So whatever you do, believe in this army. 
I do. 

39. A Scotch lieutenant agrees with Sherman: 

My dear Mother, — You will probably have noticed 
in the official report that a raid was made on the sixteenth 

on the trenches at . That, my dearest, was me, 

and I don't want to do another. We killed seven Ger- 
mans in the trench and about thirty or forty more in 
their dugout. I should say they would have lost about 
thirty more by our artillery. Our losses were slight, 
but three of my men had their legs blown off in the 
boches's trench and we had to pull them out and get 



242 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

them back. I and Charles M and Sergeant G 

were alone, and I can tell you it was no joke pulling a 
helpless man a yard and then throwing a bomb to keep 
the boches back — then pulling him another yard and 
throwing another bomb. 

Charles was guarding our left while Sergeant G 

and I got our man up on the parapet with both his legs 
pulped. Then I went back for the next. Poor devil! 
He screamed, "Ma airm and ma leg's off," to me again 
and again. I was wasting no sympathy then. Said I, 
"Crawl on your other arm and leg, then," and lugged 

him up. Sergeant M had got back to our own 

trench, but he returned to us and helped me get my man 
up into the open. We went back for the next man and 
he said, "Leave me. I'm done. " Both his legs were off — 
so I said, " None of that, my lad, you're coming with us. " 
He died on the boche parapet and we had to leave him. 
We got the other two home. 

Sergeant M and Charles got wounded, but they 

both came back to us again until the men were in. I 
just gave myself up. The shrapnel was bursting right 
in my face and the machine guns — ugh! I wasn't 
touched except for a hole in my hose-top. I didn't stop 
swearing the whole time, except when I was praying — 
but I'd promised the men that I wouldn't leave the 
boche trench while there was a man alive in it, and I 
kept my word. One poor devil was a Catholic; he 
started confessing to me, thinking I was a priest — I 
meanwhile praying, *'0 God, let us get these poor beggars 
in. " All the men I have brought in have died. 

I believe I've been recommended for the Military 
Cross, but I'd rather have the boys' lives. If I get one, 
I'll get home on special leave soon. I've had my taste of 
a show. It's not romantic. It's hell. 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 243 

40. A Kansas private tells his sister 
the great news of July: 

This has been a happy day for me. Joys here in 
France are as varied and unreliable as the weather in 
Missouri; but when they do come they come with a snap 
and bang that compel you to place them in the record of 
good memories. 

For they read us the Communique, hot off the wire, 
and the good news struck our ears as soon as the news 
cables were carrying it through the ocean and to you at 
home. You know what it was about. How the greatest 
of all German offensives was arrested, held for a time, and 
then changed into a defensive; how the Americans, put 
to the first real and trying test, drove the Huns to the 
banks of the Marne; the surprise attack in the midst of a 
raging rainstorm which found the enemy unaware and 
the subsequent capture by the combined armies of 17,000 
prisoners. And while this was going on, our own men, 
the men we work with and shall work with throughout 
the war, were fighting and shooting and stabbing and 
pushing and jabbing their way through the enemy, and 
at the end of it all they realized a remarkable advance. 
To hear the news of any advance is a thing devoutly to be 
wished and enjoyed, but when our men behave like the 
heroes of old — well — it makes you proud to be alive and 
makes you worship the plain uniform Uncle Sam gave 
you and with which he sent you thousands of miles 
away, utterly trusting you, to fight for the glory of 
things as they should be. It thrills you into silence, and 
the silence makes the tears creep into your eyes, and you 
don't know what to say. So you clasp the hand of the 
man next to you and smile as you mumble something 
like: "I knew they'd do it; yes, I just knew they would, 
because they are all Americans." 



244 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

41. A'n untried Vermont officer becomes 
a veteran over night: 

Dear M — — , This letter is not intended to be a 
picture of discomforts entirely, although I frankly admit 
that the two D's, Discomfort and Danger, have been the 
two principal words in the everyday vocabulary of your 
soldier-husband for the past couple of weeks. 

I have n't slppt an3rwhere except on the ground for 
sixteen days, and all but three of them it has rained, and 
we have marched more kilometers than I have the time 
or patience to reckon. I have never before realized how 
much real fatigue a man can endure. With my feet 
and legs aching from the tramps on the hard road, and 
my shoulders sore from the straps of my equipment, 
with the added discomfort of a pouring rain, with the 
amazing halts in the muddy roadside, while some truck 
train or wagon train filed by, with shells bursting near, 
and with my shoes swimming in water and little trickles 
running down my backbone, I have hiked mil^ after 
mile, and tried, usually in vain, to be at least civil to 
anyone who had anything to say to me. And all this 
in the night — so black that it is necessary to keep one's 
hands on the one ahead, because it is easy to get lost 
when many units are on the march. And then it is 
not a pleasure to arrive in a thick, briary woods about 
2:00 A.M. in a pouring rain and make one's bed of a 
half shelter and one blanket. Also our shoes, hobnailed 
and large, are heavy, but you've no idea how heavy 
when coated with a some three- or four-inch thickness 
of mud. 

For four days we were under shell-fire, but our artillery 
was throwing so much more at the boche than he was 
throwing at us that our casualties were very light. In 
my company only three men were wounded and one 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 245 

killed. The shell which wounded the three very nearly 
finished me. I was knocked to the ground, and part of 
my company thought I had been killed, and, in fact, it 
was so reported to them and they were somewhat sur- 
prised to see me emerge from the woods unscratched. 

The battlefield was a sight I shall long remember — 
wave after wave of men advancing, shells bursting here 
and there, the tanks crawling, caterpillar-like, over the lines 
of trenches, occasionally one stuck in a particularly bad 
spot where it became immediately a target for artillery 
fire. One ran into a mine and was blown into a thou- 
sand pieces. Overhead planes flew — ours and theirs — 
and the sputtering of the machine guns gave a varied 
staccato note to the din of battle. When evening came 
I was located with my company on high groimd, where 
I could see a long valley with mountains in the distance, 
all afire from phosphorus shells, thrown in to biim out 
the enemy artillery. 

As you have read in the papers, Mt. Sec was taken, 
and it is interesting to know that the French lost 46,000 
killed trying to take it, while the Americans now have 
not only taken it, but have reduced the entire salient 
with the loss of less than 10 per cent of that number. 

Never were there so many air battles. I saw at least 
ten the first day, and some six planes drop to the ground 
in flames. My hat is off to the aviators — they have the 
most marvelous nerve, and the skill with which they 
manoeuvre their planes is more than extraordinary — it 
is inconceivable. 

On the passage of the battlefield the sights are unten- 
able — our artillery had peppered the German positions 
until they looked like a checker board, and the ground was 
strewn with material the boche had left in his hurried 
flight. It must have been terrific — the bombardment 



246 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

the Germans received — -and I shan't forget the beginning 
of it, when in a minute, on this dark, rainy night, as 
one, a thousand guns roared out, lighting the sky like 
day, and in the pouring rain the streets of the destroyed 
town we were in looked as bright as the gay white way. 
The ground shook with the terrific concussion, and there 
must have been terror in the hearts of the Germans 
across the way. 

The second day we dug in on the hillside in a support 
position where we stayed two days and two nights, every 
now and then digging our' holes a little deeper as a shell 
would come whistling over our heads. Three times I 
was covered with a shower of dirt and stones as a shell 
burst near my little hole in the hillside — once in the 
night while I was having a nap. Needless to say it 
awakened me. 

Now I am a veteran. I have been over the top and 
led a company of storm troops over with me. 

42. A Red Cross worker tells 
a shell-shock story: 

One of our pastors did a neat thing yesterday ; there are 
a number of boys in one of our hospitals here suffering 
from shell-shock and in various stages of temporary 
mental upset. He found one of them lying with his face 
to the wall, cringing up into a small bundle. "I'm the 
man ! ' ' he cried. * * You've got me ! The French are after 
me, and they are going to shoot me at sunrise," and 
more talk like that. 

The pastor lied Hke a fish. He said to the boy: 

" Did n't you know? That's all right now. " 

* * What do you mean ? ' ' 

"See this?" And he pointed to the red cross on his 
collar. "The Red Cross sent me here to stop it, and I 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 247 

have stopped it. There are to be no more executions of 
American boys in France, so that's all settled. I just 
fixed it all up for you here, so cheer up. " 

"You did?" said the boy hopefully, doubtfully. And 
then came in two Americans followed by a poihi carry- 
ing their equipment, and, of all things, a gun! He was 
off again when he saw that. "Here they are! They've 
got me now, they've got me!" 

Well, the pastor saw it was up to him to make good his 
statement, so he descended on the poor poilu like a whirl- 
wind, talking in American for the boy's sake, in French 
for the poilu. He grabbed him by the shoulder, swung 
him around, shook him until he dropped the gun in star- 
ing terror, thinking the pastor was one of the patients, 
no doubt; picked up the gun and threatened to smash 
the poor little hrancardier (French ambulance man), 
finally jammed the gun back into his arms, and rushed 
him pell-mell out of the door. 

"See?" said he. "They won't touch you now. I've 
fixed it." 

And the man with the obsession gulped and said, 
"Thanks." 

Next morning the pastor went back. The man was 
sitting up in bed devouring a huge tray of food, cheerful, 
happy. "They did n't come this morning," he greeted 
the pastor. "They did n't come. You sure did fix it, 
sir. What were they going to shoot me for? I have n't 
got it straight yet — and how did you do it?" 

"Now, never mind, son, I don't know why. I did not 
ask them. I did n't want any argument, I was sent here 
to stop it and I did, so don't worry about it any more. " 

* * Yes, sir ! thanks awfully ! " He even chuckled. * * You 
must have surprised 'em by the way that French guy 
stepped around last night." 



248 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

By the way of epilog: The pastor and the medicin- 
en-chef went around this afternoon talking over cases. 
When they came into the room of the American boy, the 
doctor said, **Say, some officer came into this place last 
night and told that boy something. The guard said the 
officer himself was crazy, but whatever he told the boy 
worked — he is hungry to-day, cheerful, wants a bath, 
and will be well very soon. I wish — " 

Well, there's the story — and to top it off, the pastor's 
conscience troubles him for the falsehood he told the boy, 
but I doubt not that fib will go down on the right side of 
the ledger. 

43. A Pennsylvania soldier tells his mother 
. about going to the front-line trenches: 

Our regiment relieved a French regiment on one of the 
hottest of the front-line trenches. As we toiled through 
the heavy mud, as far as nine miles from the trenches 
shells were bursting; holes large enough to cover a good- 
sized house opened in the road sometimes right in front 
of our feet, and the mud would stream high into the air 
like the first spasm of an oil well. By some strange mir- 
acle we passed the area of falling shells with no casualties, 
but, added to our loads of sixty-two pounds each, we were 
carrying about three hundred pounds of mud. Anyhow 
it felt that heavy 

Nobody had a word of complaint. Some of those who 
were known to be the worst kickers back in camp, where 
we had things easy, were the ones who did the most to 
cheer things up when we struck the tough part. 

When we struck the big road just behind the trench-lines 
we met the French wounded being sent back. The walk- 
ing cases had bandages on their heads or arms, sometimes 
both, and they looked pretty well tired out. They 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 249 

yelled at us in French and a few wished us luck in English. 
Some of them were singing and laughing, and whenever 
one of their number would fall down others would forget 
their own wounds and jump to help him. 

The French soldiers sure were glad to be relieved. 
They shook hands with us when we met in small bunches, 
and a French captain kissed one of our lieutenants on 
both cheeks. As his whiskers were full of the same old 
mud good and fresh, he smeared him up considerably. 

We had it pretty easy after the French left. Only two 
or three deaths and a few wounded among us. When 
we first got in, the whole world was trembling and whole 
acres of land looked as though they were jumping sky- 
high, and the crumbling dirt fell like rain from the upper 
edges of the trench. All in one minute it quieted, and it 
stayed comparatively quiet all the time we were there. 

When we were relieved a few days later several others 
and myself were on outpost duty and were the last to 
go. Just as "^e got the word to come back I was wounded. 
A high-explosive shell had burst right in the middle of us. 
At first I didn't know that I was hurt. I thought the 
shell had blown some mud or dirt over me and stunned me 
a Httle. I stooped down to help up one of our men, but 
my left arm wouldn't work somehow, though I felt no 
pain. I began to feel dizzy. The last I remember is 
falling into the mud and water of a caved-in dugout. 

Several hours later I woke up bandaged and in an 
ambulance bound for the rear. 

44. A Tennessee doctor in the British service 
gets by the German censor: 
I have been transferred to the German service. I 
was expecting to be transferred to the American army, 
and this came as a complete surprise. 



250 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

The change came so suddenly that within an hour 
5 after dressing our own wounded I was assisting German 
doctors with their wounded and the wounded British 
prisoners of war. 

I, then, without being consulted as to what climate 

agreed with me, took a Cook's tour of the French and 

10 German border, staying in nunneries and breweries at 

night, and finally was sent here to assist in looking after 

British wounded. 

Everything is decided for me. All matters of impor- 
tance are looked after without my aid. In fact, I don't 
15 even have to worry about what I write, because if it 
doesn't suit, the censor makes a lot of erasures. 

Already I have solved the problem of why suspenders 

are so popular here. I have contributed one-third of my 

belt to the salvage-dump and could spare more, only I 

20 notice that it is beginning to look juicy and nice, so I 

retain it. 

As to parcels that are sent me, allow me to suggest 

that they be securely packed and that not many days 

elapse before sending another. There is another officer 

25 here, but he eats his nails all the while, and consequently 

he is looking well. 

I will be content here as soon as the m.ail begins to 
come, but just now I feel hermetically sealed up from 
the world. Understand me, if I become discouraged I 
30 will continue to stay. This is one job I can't lose. 

I won't say how many British wounded are here 
because the letter might get destroyed and delay the 
parcel, but we work from 8:30 in the morning until 7:00 
in the evening, and do only the urgent dressings. I 
35 did n't know there were so many broken legs in the 
world. 

Regarding the soap that you are going to send: Don't 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 251 

go to a drug store for it. A grocery is where you will 
find the kind I want. By confining myself to behind- 
the-ears and back-of-the-neck ablutions I shall prob- 
ably be able to make this piece of soap do until I hear 
from you. 

I have discontinued the use of cigarettes, not that 
they were doing me any harm at all, but I decided to 
quit until that parcel comes. My cigarette-case thinks 
it is New Year, and my stomach has decided that I 
am either wounded in the neck or that it is Lent. 

I am glad I'm alive. 

45. A New Orleans private breaks the news 
and congratulates himself: 

This letter is to let you know that I am progressing 
nicely and am thoroughly enjoying life. My sojourn in 
the hospital is quite a rest for me, and I must say a much- 
needed one, even though I was admitted after suffering 
from gas-poisoning. It is quite a relief to get away 
from the noise of battle with its heavy roar of guns on 
the fighting-front and from the discomforts of sleeping 
in dugouts while cats, rats, and cooties did their best 
to entertain you. 

For the first few nights in the hospital I honestly 
couldn't sleep on the soft beds. I was so accustomed 
to straw in the haylofts, the hard boards in a dugout, or 
the ground out in the open that I couldn't rest on an 
honest-to-goodness bed. 

I thought that I was a **dead one" several times while 
at the front the last time, but luck was with me until 
the gas disabled me for a while. The Huns came pretty 
near sending me "west" when they sent over a large 
quantity of mustard gas on the night of May 27. The 
gas penetrated the dugout and caught me while I was 



252 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

sleeping. A gas sentry was supposed to be on duty there 
to warn us, but for some reason or other was not posted 
that night. 

And the smell of that mustard gas was awful! It 
is strong enough in reality to knock you out for good 
and all if you get much of it. But that smell — that's 
the worst of all. At first I thought that I had come 
out unhurt, but later on in the day my body showed 
the effects of the gas. The stuff penetrated my clothing 
and left its mark on me. Also my eyes came in for a 
large share of it. Thus the day after the attack I was 
forced to go to the hospital. 

I passed through two field hospitals before reaching 
a French hospital for gas patients. There I remained 
three days. Then I was taken away in an ambulance 
to a small French city and placed aboard a French 
hospital train. And that was a ride. Our train pulled 
out at ii:oo o'clock at night. We rode all night and 
all day, reaching Paris at about dusk. After arriving 
we were rushed to a base hospital in Paris. And that 
was one time I could sleep on a hospital bed, for I was 
so tired and weary from the long trip. 

But even here our sleep was broken. About midnight, 
I was startled by a shrill cry of a siren whistle. It was 
warning Paris that boche airplanes were in the vicinity 
of the city. At the hospital we were all rushed to the 
cellar, where we remained two hours. Then the "All 
clear" signal was given and we went back to our beds, 
muttering threats of vengeance against the boche for 
disturbing our peaceful sleep at such an unholy hour of 
the night. 

After two days and nights in the Paris hospital a number 
of us were placed on a real American hospital train. The 
United States War Department is certainly to be con- 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 253 

gratulated on its method of transporting the wounded 
from the front to the different hospitals. On this train 
we had every possible convenience. The Red Cross is 
certainly to be praised for the manner in which it takes 
care of the wounded soldiers. 

My trip ended at Hospital 24 after I had ridden on an 
American hospital train part of the day and until 10:00 
o'clock at night. 

There is no use worrying about me. It won't be long 
before I can be marked for duty. We are being treated 
royally by the nurses and doctors, and have been so at 
every hospital we went through. It was great to see 
real American nurses and doctors again and cheered us 
up considerably. I've met boys in this hospital unit 
from all parts of Mississippi and Louisiana. They 
treat me fine. Sam comes in every night to see me and 
brings me fresh cherries and oranges. I was lucky to 
get into a hospital made up of "Dixie" attendants, for 
it makes me feel more at home. Now don't worry about 
me. I'll be all right in a few days and can rejoin my 
regiment. It takes a little time to cure gas cases. It 
does n't seem natural to be so far back of the lines. Every- 
thing is so quiet I actually miss the roar of heavy gims 
and the bursts of shells and grenades. 

Our work over here is n't easy, but it has its compen- 
sations. Although we may not particularly fancy some 
of the jobs in the trenches at times, we usually look back 
upon them without bitterness. They were for the cause. 
But it appeals to a man's pride when he thinks that after 
the war he can look back into the past and catch a glimpse 
of the time he spent on the battle-line in France during 
the world's greatest war — treasures in a soldier's memory. 
But, best of all, he can have a clear conscience which will 
speak : * * You were a man. ' ' 



254 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

I presume the United States is full of enthusiasm over 
90 the fact that the boys of America are proving themselves 
equal to the best German soldiers and can hold their own 
with the crack Teutonic regiments. 

46. A lieutenant from Ohio 
begins as follows: 

In my present condition I feel as if I were on a crowded 
street car, and holding on for **dear life" to my strap. 
My left arm, from the shoulder to the elbow, is supported 
by a sleeve with four pieces of tape fastened to a hook; 

5 this is fastened by means of a series of pulleys and ropes 
over the top of my bed to a bag of shot. My elbow is 
taped to another cord and this cord passes over the top 
of a small upright and is also fastened to another bag 
of shot. My forearm is taped from the elbow to the 

10 wrist, and then a handle has been made for my hand. 
All of this is fastened to another cord which runs through 
a group of pulleys to a shot-bag. This conglomeration 
of cords, pulleys, and shot-bags answers for the splints. 
It is a new system and from all indications it is very 

15 practical. 

47. A woman canteen worker with the Red Cross 
tells of a strenuous time: 

As soon as I reached the hospital I was asked if I 
would go into one of the barracks where the more lightly 
wounded were and interpret for the French doctors and 
the EngHsh. 
5 The hospital is a huge place with wooden shacks for 
the different wards and spreads over a great deal of 
ground. I was taken into one of these barracks crowded 
with people, becoming more crowded as the night went 
on. There were both English and French, and I was 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 255 

asked to take the names of all the English, their regi- 
ments, enlistments, and so on, and find out where they 
were wounded. I was told what to do, then left alone, 
and there I was all night, the room crowded with French, 
Algerians, blacks, and English. 

As the night wore on the poor things lay down as 
they could on the floors, under the tables and on the 
tables, bloody bandages all around. I had made out all 
the English papers by about 2 :3o o'clock. In the midst of 
it, about one o'clock we had an air raid, and I can tell you 
the bombs never sounded so loud as they did out there, 
all alone with those wounded men. In the midst of it 
some one opened the door and called "A I'abri," and 
those who were able left the shack and went to the abri. 

I went out to see how it was, and found many of them 
standing outside, as the abri was full. About four 

'clock, it began to get light and I wondered whether the 
others had gone home, but as I was alone with all those 
men I did not Hke to leave. A Httle later some of the 
officials came in, and then began the task of fitting the 
papers to the men and getting them off in the train. 
They wanted me to stay to read the names, as they were 
difficult to pronounce. I made another list of men who 
had to go off on stretchers, told the doctors in French 
where they were wounded, and so on, and did not get 
back to the house until noon. It was rather a long 
stretch from ten o'clock the night before, especially as 

1 had nothing to drink or eat. 

48. A New York soldier tells of 
Major Lttfbery's death: 
Dear Billy, — Things up here have been rather quiet 
of late, as there is little or no activity along this front at 
present. Most of our excitement consists of air battles, 

18 



256 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

and to-day has been one long to be remembered, as we 
have had three directly over us — one resulting in the 
death of Major Lufbery. The boche hit his plane and 
also him. His plane came down in flames, and he jumped 
from it when it was about two hundred feet from the 
ground and, of course, was killed. He was the idol of 
everyone at the aviation field, which is about a mile 
from us. 

You have no idea how beautiful an air battle really is. 
When a boche plane appears and all the forts back of us 
open fire on it, it sounds as though hell had broken loose. 
It is only a moment or two before you hear the himi of 
our planes and they swoop down on the enemy and the 
forts let up and the chase begins. The results are almost 
always in favor of the Allies. 

49. A French professor to his mother:^ 

. . . My hour has perhaps not yet sounded. It will 
probably come. I no longer pray for myself, but for the 
others, for you all and for thee, mother, especially; and 
how ardent, fervent, passionate is that prayer. I ask 
God to make you all calm and brave whatever happens. 
I would be a hundred fold stronger if I knew that you 
were joyously ready. And especially do not look upon 
me as a hero or a wonder. No. What have I done that 
is extraordinary? Nothing. I have tried to do my 

duty like everybody else. That's all What are our 

lives worth when we think of the years of happiness and 
peace of those who will follow us and those who may sur- 
vive us? We labor for to-morrow, in order that there 
may be no more wars, no more spilling of blood, no more 
killing, no more wounded, no more mutilated victims ; we 



1 From A Soldier Unafraid, by Captain Andre Cornet-Auquier. 
Copyright, 1918, by Little. Brown & Company. 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 257 

labor, we whom our mothers will so weep for, in order 
that other mamas may never know these bitter tears. 
In truth, when one thinks of the centuries that this peace 
will last, one is ashamed of the rebellious movements 
which the flesh is guilty of at certain moments at the 
thought of death 

50. A New York private, killed in action, 
put this in his will: 

To the little old United States I give my life willingly, 
because she is the grandest, greatest, and freest country 
in the world. And I hope to God that the day will 
come when she will be indeed ' ' America for Americans ' ' 
of undivided allegiance. 

51. An American poet in the Foreign Legion 
writes to his mother: ^ 

. . . You must not be anxious about my not coming 
back. The chances are about ten to one that I will. 
But if I should not, you must be proud, like a Spartan 
mother, and feel that it is your contribution to the tri- 
umph of the cause whose righteousness you feel so keenly. 
Everybody should take part in this struggle which is to 
have so decisive an effect, not only on the nations engaged, 
but on all humanity. There should be no neutrals, but 
everyone should bear some part of the burden. If so 
large a part should fall to your share, you would be in so 
far superior to other women and should be correspond- 
ingly proud. There would be nothing to regret, for I 
could not have done otherwise than what I did and I 
think I could not have done better. Death is nothing ter- 
rible after all. It ma}^ mean something more wonderful 



^ From Letters and Diary of Alan Seeger. Copyright, 1916, by Charles 
Scribner's Sons. 



258 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

than life. It cannot possibly mean anything worse to the 
good soldier. So do not be unhappy, but no matter 
what happens walk with your head high and glory in 
your large share of whatever credit the world may give me. 

52. A young aviator's last letter 
to his father: 

I want to say, in closing, if anything should happen to 
me, let's have no mourning, in spirit or in dress. Like 
a Liberty bond, it is an investment, not a loss, when a 
man dies for his country. It is an honor to a family, 
and is that the time for weeping? I would rather leave 
my family rich in pleasant memories of my life than 
numbed in sorrow at my death. 

53. ''Forward all the same!'' 

(A lad of eighteen, who had been brought up in a foundling hospital 
of Paris, without friends or education, was chosen to reconnoiter 
a German trench. The little daughter of his commanding officer 
had sent him an Easter gift, with a friendly word, and when he 
departed on his dangerous mission, he left a letter for her father 
containing the child's note, his only possession of value.) 

to be given to commandant p. if i do not return by six 
o'clock Wednesday morning 

My Commandant, — Having a mission, small, it is 
true, but rather dangerous, the lieutenant has done me 
the honor to send me on it. I go, therefore, gladly, since 
it is my job, rather than anyone else's. But as I may 
remain there, I thank you, as well as Miss Y. for having 
been so thoughtful as to send me an Easter remembrance. 
So, my Commandant, permit me to thank you. For- 
ward! Long live France! If you receive this card, it 
will be because I have fallen for good. Forward all the 
same! 

(At the next roll-call of his company, his name was called very 
loud, and some one answered for him, "Dead on the field of honor.") 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 259 

54. One of four soldier sons tells of a brother fallen: 

Robert fell during the fighting of August i, 

while we were defending a village we had just taken from 
the enemy. He died a soldier's death, dear Mother, 
and died as he had lived — true to his coimtry, and 
true to the ones he loved. They laid him away to rest 
in the shadows of a large bunch of trees in the grounds 
of a beautiful chateau. It is a beautiful spot, Mother 
dear. It is so cool, so quiet, and one can feel the holy 
presence of God among the whispering trees. He lies 
not alone. Others are by his side, and that little spot 
will ever remain American — hallowed by the ones who 

gave their all It is written that some must pay 

the price that man may enjoy life and happiness, and we 
have been chosen to bear the loss. I wish I were with 
you. Mother, that I might help to soften your sorrow and 
wipe the tears from your eyes, but it is not to be 

55. An Italian poet-soldier who fell op. the Isonzo 

leading his platoon into battle: 

This letter, which you will receive only in case that I 
should fall in this battle, I am writing in an advanced 
trench, where I have been since last night, with my 
soldiers, in expectation of the order to cross the river and 
move to the attack. 

I am calm, perfectly serene, and firmly resolved to do 
my duty in full and to the last, like a brave and good 
soldier, confident to the utmost of our final unfailing 
victory; although I am not equally sure that I shall 
live to see it. But this uncertainty does not trouble 
me in the least, nor has it any terror for me. I am happy 
in offering my life to my country; I am proud to spend 
it for so noble a purpose and I know not how to thank 
Divine Providence for the opportunity — which I deem 



26o THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

an honor — afforded me, on this fulgent autumnal day, 
in the midst of this enchanting valley of our Julian 
Venetia, while I am in the prime of life, in the fullness 
of my physical and mental powers, to fight in this holy 
war for liberty and justice. All is propitious to me, all 
is favorable to die a beautiful and glorious death; the 
weather, the place, the season, the opportunity, the age. 
A better end could not have crowned my life, and I feel 
the pleasure to have made a good and generous use of it. 
Do not grieve over my death, Mother, for it was written 
in Heaven that I should die. Do not mourn, Mother, 
or else you would regret my happiness. I am not to be 
mourned but envied. 

56. A young Illinois lawyer, who fell 
on the field of honor: 

My dear Mother, — I am about to go into battle 
and have instructed the company clerk to send you this 
letter in case I become a casualty, hence the receipt of 
this letter by you will indicate that I am either with 
God or a prisoner in the hands of the enemy. 

Since I will never become a prisoner of the Hun if I 
remain conscious and able to fight, it is doubtful whether 
I will ever be an inmate of a German prison camp. 

Do not grieve that I am among the missing, but rather 
rejoice that you have given a son in sacrifice to make the 
greatest military caste of all times lay down the sword — 
to save civilization, to prevent future wars, to punish the 
Huns, who have disregarded every law of God and man- 
kind, whose only God is the god of war and military 
force — and to make the world safe for democracy. 

I desire that you view the matter in the light and spirit 
of the Spartan mothers of old, who, when their sons went 
forth to battle for freedom and their native land, said to 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 261 

their sons: "Either come home proudly bearing your 
shield before you or upon it." 

War was absolutely necessary on the part of my country, 
and although I was thirty-four years old and nobody 
expected me to go, yet some one had to go, some must 
make the sacrifice, some mother must lose her son. 

In the light of these facts, and knowing our country's 
great need, I volunteered and have never for one moment 
regretted my decision and will not, although my life and 
useftd career must end. Life is not the highest boon of 
my existence. There are ideals that are superhuman, 
interests greater than life itself for which it is worth while 
fighting, suffering, and dying. 

5 7 . i4 Canadian captain to his father, 
just before going into action: 

I am writing one of these "in case" letters for the 
third time and of course I hope you will never have to 
read it — if you are reading it now, you will know that 
your yoimgest son "went under" as proud as Punch on 
the most glorious day of his life. I am taking my com- 
pany over the top for a mile, in the biggest push that has 
ever been launched in the world, and I trust that it is 
going to be the greatest factor toward peace. 

Dad, you can't imagine the wonderful feeling — a man 
thinks something Hke this: "Well, if I am going to die, 
this is worth it a thousand times. " 

I have been over two or three times before, but never 
with a company of my own. Think of it — a hundred 
and fifty officers and men who will follow you to hell if 
need be! 

I don't want any of you dear people to be sorry for 
me, although, of course, you will in a way. You will 
miss me, but you mil be proud of me. Mind you, I 



262 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

know what I am up against and that the odds are against 
me. I am not going in the way I did the first time, just 
for sheer devilment and curiosity. I have seen this game 
for two years and I still like it and feel that my place is 
here. 

So much for that. I want to thank you from the bot- 
tom of my heart for all your loving kindness to me. This 
war has done wonders to me and makes me realize lots 
of things which I would not have done otherwise. I 
could \\Tite a book about it, but you know what I mean. 

Good-by, dear Father and Mother, and all of you. 
Again I say that I am proud to be where I am now. 

58. The last letter from a young 
English poet-soldier: 

Oh darling Mother, — The pride of being in so great 
a regiment ; the thought that all the old men (late Grena- 
dier Guards) who sit in London clubs are thinking and 
hoping about what we are doing here now — I have 
never been prouder of anything, except your love for me, 
than that I am a Grenadier. That line of Harry's rings 
through my mind, "High heart, high speech, high deeds, 
'mid honoring eyes." 

I went to service on the hill this morning, and took the 
Holy Communion afterwards, which always seems to 
help one along, doesn't it? 

I slept like a top last night, and dreamed that some 
one I knew very well, but I can't remember who it was, 
came and told me how much I had grown. I feel rather 
like saying, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from me," 
but the triumphant finish, "Nevertheless, not what I 
will but what Thou wiliest," steels my heart and sends 
me into this battle with a heart of triple bronze. I 
always carry four photos of you when I go into action, 



LETTERS FROM THE FIGHTING MEN 263 

one in my note case, two in my little leather book, and one 
around my neck. 

Brutus' farewell to Cassius sounds in my heart: "If 
not farewell, and if we meet again, we shall smile." 

Your love for me and my love for you have made my 
life one of the happiest that has ever been. 

This is a great day for me. 

God bless you and give you peace. 

Now all my blessings go with you always. 

S9- A French lieutenant writes 
to his captain's father: 

.... With deep regret and heartfelt sorrow I 
carry out the painful duty entrusted to me by your son, 
M. Ferdinand Belmont, my captain. 

During the engagement of December 28th last, at 4:00 
A.M., your son, with a few agents de liaison and myself, 
surprised by a violent bombardment, was crouching 
under a shelter when a \\Tetched shell splinter struck my 
unfortunate captain on the right arm. 

Immediately, with a courage worthy of the highest 
praise, he saw that he was fatally wounded. His arm 
was almost severed above the elbow. 

It was then, with admirable coolness, that he charged 
me with the painful mission of informing you of the 
fresh misfortune which was to afflict his dear parents, 
already so tried by the war. 

He charged me to tell you, sir, that his last thought 
was for his parents, that he regretted the sorrow his 
death would cause them, but that he was happy to have 
accomplished his duty to the end. 

He was a brave and loyal fellow, much liked by his 
chiefs and especially by his subordinates. The officers 
and men of his company had a veritable veneration for 



264 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY • 

him. To his company and to myself, to whom he passed 
the command, this loss is irreparable. 

60. The commanding officer writes to the widow 
of an English poet and scholar: 

I cannot express to you adequately in words how deep 
our sympathy is for you and your children in your great 
loss. These things go too deep for mere words. We, 
officers and men, all moiun our own loss. Your husband 
was very greatly loved in this Battery, and his going has 
been a personal loss to each of us. He was rather older 
than most of the officers, and we all looked up to him 
as a kind of father of our happy family. He was always 
the same, quietly cheerful and ready to do any job that 
was going with the same steadfast, unassuming spirit. 

The day before his death we were rather heavily 
shelled, and he had a very narrow shave, but he went 
about his work quite quietly and ordinarily, as if nothing 
was happening. 

I wish I could convey to you the picture of him, a 
picture we had all learnt to love — of the old clay pipe, 
gum boots, oilskin coat, and steel helmet. 

With regard to his actual death you have probably 
heard the details. It should be of some comfort to you 
to know that he died at a moment of victory from a 
direct hit by a shell, which must have killed him out- 
right without giving him a chance to realize anything, 
a gallant death for a very true and gallant gentleman. 
We buried him in a little military cemetery a few hundred 
yards from the Battery; the exact spot will be notified 
you by the parson. As we stood by his grave the sun 
came and the guns round seemed to stop firing for a 
short time. This typified to me what stood out most 
in yovir husband's character, the spirit of quiet, sunny, 
unassuming cheerfulness. 



PART IV 

EMBATTLED DEMOCRACY: POEMS FROM THE 

FIELD OF ACTION AND FROM BEHIND 

THE LINES 



*'High hearty high speech, high deeds ^ 
Unid honoring eyes^ 



PART IV 
INTRODUCTORY 

To compare the poetry of this war with that of any earlier one,, 
is to see not only that the poet is using a new terminology, as befits 
the new technique of war, but that he is expressing a new reaction, 
a new mood. Formerly, when war was less terrible in its operation, 
it was romantic, it stirred the spirit of adventure. Open warfare 
was a superb spectacle and one's imagination thrilled to "battle's 
magnificently stem array" and to the "fiery mass of living valor 
rolling on the foe." Martial music, flags and banners, gorgeous 
uniforms, resplendent cavalry, and all other externals of war, gave 
to it a glamor and covered its terrors with Romance. Now war is 
realism; war is ugliness; war is horror. No longer in brilliant uni- 
form, the soldier goes protectively colored, like a creature of the 
earth, and burrows like a mole in the ground ; he fires at an enemy 
he does not see; he is not inspired by martial music or banners; 
endurance must largely take the place of action; concealment must 
be his constant study, and against bursting shrapnel there is no use 
to oppose his valor. Even when the charge comes, it is not that 
gallant encounter of open warfare with a fair field and no favors, 
but opposing skill in the use of ingenious instruments of destruction 
such as modem warfare has brought. It is ghastly and terrible in 
its physical features, and what has been the result? One no longer 
goes to war for romance, he goes for an ideal. The more realistic 
war becomes on its technical side, the more idealistic it becomes on 
its spiritual side. Only for the great inner purpose would anyone 
endure the outer horror; and the poets, who are the seers, looking 
wholly above the modem operation of war, sing only of it as an 
instrument, only of its operation in the great ends of world destiny, i 

The poems which make up this section are by American 
and English writers. Others of the allied nations have 
furnished their war poets also, and all of them display 
the same unanimity in the themes treated that their 



Jessie B. Rittenhouse, in Bookman, March, 1918. 
267 



268 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

statesmen have displayed in the discussions of war aims 
and settlements. 

When the world was first plunged into war in the fall 
of 19 1 4, the civilian poets at once found it a fruitful theme. 
The great war lyrics of the world had always been wTitten 
by civilians, none of them by men actually serving in the 
ranks. These civilian poets touched many strings and 
in some cases touched them with great certainty. Poems 
that would stir to patriotic fervor, that would help in 
recruiting armies, that would awaken strong sympathy 
for crushed Belgium and stricken France, that would 
stimulate and steady the morale of the people at home — 
such poems were legion. Never before were civilians so 
generally conscious of a righteous cause, and the moral 
earnestness of all this poetry was marked. 

There was, however, a fact true of this war that had 
never been true in any such degree in the great wars of 
the past. The great allied armies were not made up of 
professional soldiers, but of men of peaceful pursuits 
drawn from every walk in life. "For when Germany, 
mad for power, started to run amuck through the freedom 
and common rights of humanity, and the young manhood 
of our race rose to answer the challenge, they were of all 
sorts and conditions who swarmed to the recruiting 
stations — aristocrats and navvies, artisans and university 
professors, tradesmen, artists, farmers, actors, stock- 
brokers and poets." Thus an Enghsh writer, and in our 
own country the selective service law gave us an army 
of all types of previous conditions. The "Everyman's 
Land" of the allied battle front was such a melting pot 
as the world had never seen. 

It was not long until this new fact became apparent 
in many ways. One way was that the army found a voice. 
The soldier was no longer inarticulate. Not only in 



INTRODUCTORY 269 

letters and journals and other records of personal experi- 
ences did he let us see things as he saw them, but he put 
into verse for the first time the inmost soul of the man in 
the trenches — himself. Our new American armies have 
furnished some of these poets, but only a few poems of 
distinction from them have yet made their way to us. 
Had this war been extended, our experience would no 
doubt have been the same as England's, It would be easy 
to collect many more than a hundred volumes of worthy 
verse by her soldier poets. And of the hundred writers, 
more than half lie in the fields of Flanders and Picardy. 
Certain qualities constant in the best of all this war 
poetry, whether by civilian or soldier, stand out promi- 
nently and are worthy of emphasis. There is an almost 
complete absence of the note of hatred. The enemy is 
not the subject about which the poet-soldier, at any rate, 
writes. One critic quotes from a letter: "Not worth 
while trying to score off the Boches in verse — we can do 
that better when fighting them." The "helHshness and 
horror of war " is a common theme. The poet in the ranks 
is under no illusion. He faces the brute facts as he finds 
them. He is sustained by a high and holy purpose. 
He is making war upon a system; he wars to end war. 
Hence he can sing as does Tom Kettle : 

Then lift the flag of the Last Crusade! 

And fill the ranks of the Last Brigade! 

March on to the fields where the world's remade, 

And the Ancient Dreams come true! 

Or he can say of his comrades, as does Sergeant J. W. 

Streets in his fine "Requiem," that theirs i? 

The strength of suffering gods who toil with many scars 
To wrest promethean fire for dead humanity. 

His sentiment is virile, never mawkish. Face to face 
with death, his fear is not of the enemy, it is rather that 



270 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

he may imperfectly stand the test of battle. And so he 
may pray with Hodgson : 

I, that on my familiar hill 

Saw with uncomprehending eyes 

A hundred of Thy sunsets spill 

Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice, 

Ere the sun swings his noonday sword 

Must say good-bye to all of this : — 

By all delights that I shall miss, 

Help me to die, O Lord. 
He fears, too, that those at home may weaken, and that 
his sacrifices upon the field of battle may be in vain. He 
does not speak of himself as a "patriot." The old note of 
professional patriotism is entirely lacking. "Their love 
of country is expressed in a varied symbolism — in longing, 
lingering glances at the land which may not be able to 
give them even a grave, at the life relinquished which will 
yet be theirs for evermore. Rupert Brooke's wonderful 
sonnet which begins, 

If I should die, think only this of me: 

That there 's some corner of a foreign field 

That is for ever England, 
is the subtlest form of this beautiful symbolism." 

The editors of The Stars and Stripes, the official paper 
of the A. E. F. in France, found themselves overwhelmed 
by poetic contributions. In speaking of the character 
of this verse they said that it was — 

sentiment — heart, if you care to call it that — that all of this verse 
possesses as verse seldom possessed it before. The Army's Poets 
are the spokesmen of the Army's soul. That soul speaks the same 
message whether it comes from base port or front line. It speaks 
the Army's longing and love for things and friends across the seas, 
of slum and cooties and mud; it speaks the Army's determination 
to see this thing through, to keep at this bitter and glorious business 
of war until the high aims for which it is fighting are achieved, 
when the Army's Poets in unison shall interpret the Army's soul in a 
paean of victory. 



INTRODUCTORY 271 

The civilian poets, away from the stress of the actual 
fighting, very properly emphasize their admiration of 
their citizen armies. They deal with the changes and 
renunciations and separations and suspense which are 
often more terrible than what the fighting man faces. 
For not all the heroisms of war are on the battle front. 
They pay due reverence to Belgium and France, to Edith 
Cavell and Lord Kitchener. They stir the lagging 
spirits of their fellow citizens. They measure deserved 
praise to those who struggle for the world's liberation **in 
every weather and along every meridian, beneath sharks 
and above eagles." And especially they furnish voices 
for "the plain men who, dumbly and sadly . . . have 
left their true fields and occupation for soaking trenches 
and freezing rigging, to build with the hands of their 
spirits more than their corporal hands knew or their eyes 
could ever hope to see." 

The poems which follow exemplify practically every 
type of verse produced by the war. They range from 
the humor and lightheartedness of Frank Sidgwick's 
"Form Fours!" or William Childs's "Our Hitch in 
Hell " to the painful stress of poems such as Joyce Kilmer's 
"Rouge Bouquet" or Leslie Coulson's "But a Short 
Time to Live." Of the more than thirty poets in the 
service represented, some fifteen are numbered with those 
who have laid down their lives that civilization might be 
preserved. 

Out of the great mass of war verse a few poems have 
already taken their place firmly in the front rank by virtue 
of that popular suffrage which there is no gainsaying. 
One of these is Colonel John McCrae's "In Flanders 
Fields," with its poignant appeal to the living not to 
break faith with those who have died. His "Anxious 
Dead" is quite as remarkable a poem, though it has not 

19 



272 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

achieved such popularity. Of Alan Seeger's most famous 
poem, "I Have a Rendezvous with Death," Professor 
Phelps remarks that it is "almost intolerably painful in 
its tragic beauty, in its contrast between the darkness 
of the unchanging shadow and the apple-blossoms of the 
sunny air — above all, because we read it after both 
Youth and Death have kept their word, and met at the 
place appointed." Rupert Brooke's "The Soldier" has 
long since taken its place with the poems of supreme 
patriotic exaltation. Winifred Letts's "The Spires of 
Oxford" has a simplicity that reaches to the very heart 
of the reader. Certainly the world is right in including 
this small group in any list of the very greatest poems 
which have come out of the war. Some of our -individual 
choices may be missing, and the list could be safely 
extended ; it could hardly be shortened. One could wish, 
for instance, that Joyce Kilmer's "The White Ships and 
the Red," a poem of real distinction, might be added; 
or Julian Grenf ell's wonderful ecstasy of the fighting 
man, the only poem of great appeal by a professional 
soldier. But one must stop short of a complete roll call 
with the suggestion that the reader should feel perfectly 
free to admire njost what most satisfies the needs of his 
own heart without slavish reference to the judgments 
of others. 



THE NEW CRUSADE 

KATHARINE LEE BATES 

Life is a trifle; 
Honor is all ; 
Shoulder the rifle ; 
Answer the call. 
''A nation of traders"! 
We 'II show what we are, 
Freedom's crusaders 
Who war against war. 

Battle is tragic; 
Battle shall cease; 
Ours is the magic 
Mission of Peace. 
''A nation of traders" ! 
We 'II show what we are, 
Freedom's crusaders 
Who war against war. 

Gladly we barter 
Gold of our youth 
For Liberty's charter 
Blood-sealed in truth. 
"A nation of traders"! 
We 'II show what we are. 
Freedom's crusaders 
Who war against war. 

Sons of the granite, 
Strong be our stroke, 
Making this planet 
Safe for the folk. 

273 



274 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

"A nation of traders''! 
We 'II show what we are, 
Freedom's crusaders 
Who war against war 

Life is but passion, 
Sunshine on dew. 
Forward to fashion 
The old world anew ! 
'*A nation of traders"! 
We'll show what we are, 
Freedom's crusaders 
Who war against war. 



THE OLD KINGS 

MARGARET WIDDEMER 

All of the Old Kings 

Are wakened from their sleep, 
Arthur out of Avalon, 
Ogier from the deep, 
Redbeard from his Dragon-Rock, 
Sigurd from his fen . . . 
"Is it time, " they rise and cry, 
''To lead our hosts again?" 

They have donned their winged helms. 

They would rise and reign, 
The young king Sebastian, 

The old king Charlemagne, 
Harold with his great bow, 

Roland with his horn . . . 
Men have heard their horses' hoofs 

Many a scarlet mom ! 



THE KNIGHTS 275 

The Old Kings have risen . . . 

Where the hosts advance 
Redbeard cries his Germans on, 

Karle cries out for France, 
Up and down the battle-field 

Ghostly armies beat, 
Stilly down the gray sea glides 

Olaf's shadow-fleet. . . . 

Up and down the red fields 

Men have seen them go, 
Seen the long plumes on the wind, 

Seen the pennons flow; 
Harry out of Agincourt 

Sends his bowmen wide, 
Joan that has forgiven them 

Battles at their side. . . . 

Christ, king of Paradise, 

Hasten with Thy hosts. 
Angels all in silver mail, 

Saints and blessed ghosts; 
Cry the long swords sheathed again, 

Cry the pennons furled. 
Lest under Ragnarok 

Lie the shattered world ! 



THE KNIGHTS 

ABBIE FARWELL BROWN 

Not dust! Not dust the chivalry. 
The knightly heart of high romance 

Enshrined in ancient poetry. 

Behold, the battle-fields of France ! 



276 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Gone plume and crest and jeweled sword, 
Gone pomp and picturesque array. 

War is a grim and hideous word ! 
Yet heroes walk the world to-day. 

A Launcelot or Lion Heart? 

A Roland or a Godfrey bold? 
Nay, simple lads who bear their part 

As gallantly as knights of old. 

Our lithe brown legions swinging by, 
Our bonny sailors proudly free; 

The dauntless champions of the sky, 
The dragon-chasers on the sea ! 

A thousand Sidneys pass the cup 
Of blessedness on fields of blood ; 

And countless Bayards offer up 
Their joyous hope for others' good. 

Never were hearts so nobly bold, 
Nor bodies built so strongly fair. 
The tree of life has not grown old, 
But blooms to-day beyond compare ! 

No more we glory in the past 
And yearn to see those kings of men. 

The peerless knights arise at last, 
And epic deeds are done again ! 



IN THE TIME OF STRIFE 277 

IN THE TIME OF STRIFE 

FRANK L. STANTON 

We may not know 
How red the lilies of the spring shall grow ; 

What silver flood, 
Sea-streaming, take the crimson tints of blood. 

We may not know 5 

If victory shall make the bugles blow; 

If still shall wave 
The flag above our freedom or our grave. 

We only know 
One heart, one hand, one country, meet the foe- 10 

On land and sea 
Her liegemen in the battle of the free! 



"MEN WHO MARCH AWAY" 
(Song of the Soldiers) 

THOMAS HARDY 

What of the faith and fire within us 

Men who march away 

Ere the barn-cocks say 

Night is growing gray. 
Leaving all that here could win us; 
What of the faith and fire within us 
Men who march away ? 

Is it a purblind prank, think you. 
Friend with the musing eye, 
Who watch us stepping by 
With doubt and dolorous sigh ? 



278 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Can much pondering so hoodwink you! 
Is it a purbHnd prank, O think you, 
Friend with the musing eye? 

15 Nay. We well see what we are doing 

Though some may not see, 

Dalliers as they be; 

England's need are we; 
Her distress would leave us rueing : 
20 Nay. We well see what we are doing, 

Though some may not see ! 

In our heart of hearts believing 
Victory crowns the just. 
And that braggarts must 
25 ' Surely bite the dust, 

Press we to the field ungrieving, 
In our heart of- hearts believing 
Victory crowns the just. 

Hence the faith and fire within us 
30 Men who march away 

Ere the barn-cocks say 
Night is growing gray, 
Leaving all that here could win us ; 
Hence the faith and fire within us 
35 Men who march away. 

SONG OF LIBERTY 

LOUISE AYRES GARNETT 

Lead on, lead on, America, 

And set thy brothers free! 

Through life and death and round the world, 

OFlag, I'll follow thee! 



TECUMSEH AND THE EAGLES 279 

Lead on, lead on ! our hearts are great 
With purpose bom of God, 
For we are pledged to liberty 
On this, our deathless sod. 

I hear the soul of Lincoln call: 
* Go forth with hate toward none 
And see, through consecrated strengtn. 
The free man's battle won. 
Go forth as brother to the world! 
Twas but my flesh that died. 
For I am with you till the end, 
And marching at your side." 

America, thou promised land. 
Thy dreams and hopes are mine, 
And I will break thy sacred bread 
And drink thy living wine. 
O God, our source of liberty, 
Stretch forth Thy mighty hand 
And bless the life of her we love. 
The free man's chosen land. 

TECUMSEH AND THE EAGLES 

BLISS CARMAN 
I 

Tecumseh of the Shawnees, 

He dreamed a noble dream — 
A league to hold their freedom old 

And make their peace supreme. 
He drew the tribes together 

And bound them to maintain 
Their sacred pact to stand and act 

For common good and gain. 



280 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

II 

The eagles taught Tecumseh 

The secret of their clan — 
A way to keep, o'er plain and steep, 

The liberty of man. 
The champions of freedom, 

They may not weary soon, 
Or lay aside in foolish pride 

The vigilance of noon. 

The teachers of Tecumseh 

Were up to meet the dawn, 
To scan the light and hold the height 

Till the last Hght was gone. 
Like specks upon the azure. 

Their guards patrolled the sky, 
To mount and plain, and soar again, 

And give the warning cry. 

They watched for lurking perils, 

The death that skulks and crawls. 
To take by stealth their only wealth 

On wind-swept mountain walls. 
They did not trust the shadows 

That sleep upon the hill ; 
Where menace hid, where cunning slid, 

They struck — and struck to kill. 

Through lonely space unmeasiu-ed 
They laid their sentry rings. 

Till every brood in eyrie rude 
Was shadowed by their wings. 



TECUMSEH AND THE EAGLES 281 

Tecumseh watched the eagles 

In summer o'er the plain, 
And learned their cry : "If freedom die 

Ye will have lived in vain ! ' ' 

III 

The vision of Tecumseh, 

It could not long endure ; 
He lacked the might to back the right 

And make his purpose sure. 
Tecumseh and his people 

Are gone: they could not hold 
Their league for good — their brotherhood 

Is but a tale that's told. 

IV 

The eagles of Tecumseh 

Still hold their lofty flight, 
And guard their own on outposts lone 

Across the fields of light. 
They see on earth, below them. 

Where time is but a breath, 
Another race brought face to face ^ 

With liberty or death. 

Above a thousand cities 

A new day is unfurled ; 
And still on high those watchers cry 

Their challenge to the world. 
They hold their valiant instinct 

And know their right of birth; 
They do not cede their pride of breed 

For things of little worth. 



282 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

65 Where patriots are marching 

And battle flags are borne, 
To South and North their cry goes forth 

To rally and to warn. 
From border unto border, 
70 They wheel and cry again 

That master cry: " If freedom die 
Ye will have lived in vain!" 

MEMORIAL DAY 

THEODOSIA GARRISON 

A handful of old men walking down the village street 
In worn, brushed uniforms, their, grey heads high, — 

A faded flag above them, one drum to lift their feet, 
Look again, O, heart of mine, and see what passes by. 

5 There's a vast crowd swaying, there's a wild band playing, 

The streets are full of marching men, of tramping 

cavalry. 

Alive and young and straight again, they ride to greet 

a mate again, — 

The gallant souls, the great souls that live eternally. 

A handful of old men walking down the highways ? 
10 Nay, we look on heroes that march among their peers, 
The great, glad Companies have swung from Heaven's 
byways 
And come to join their own again across the dusty years. 

There are strong hands meeting, there are staunch hearts 
greeting,— 
A crying of remembered names, of deeds that shall 
not die. 
15 A handful of old men? — Nay, my heart, look well again; 
The spirit of America today is marching by! 



THE WHITE SHIPS AND THE RED 28: 

THE WHITE SHIPS AND THE RED 

JOYCE KILMER 

With drooping sail and pennant 

That never a wind may reach, 
They float in sunless waters 

Beside a sunless beach. 
Their mighty masts and funnels 

Are white as driven snow, 
And with a pallid radiance 

Their ghostly bulwarks glow. 

Here is a Spanish galleon 

That once with gold was gay, 
Here is a Roman trireme 

Whose hues outshone the day. 
But Tyrian dyes have faded 

And prows that once were bright 
With rainbow stains wear only 

Death's livid, dreadful white. 

White as the ice that clove her 

That unforgotten day. 
Among her pallid sisters 

The grim Titanic lay. 
And through the leagues above her 

She looked, aghast, and said: 
"What is this living ship that comes 

Where every ship is dead?" 

The ghostly vessels trembled 
From ruined stern to prow ; 
. What was this thing of terror 
That broke their vigil now? 



284 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Down through the startled ocean 

A mighty vessel came, 
Not white, as all dead ships must be, 

But red, like living flame ! 

The pale green waves about her 

Were swiftly, strangely dyed, 
By the great scarlet stream that flowed 

From out her wounded side. 
And all her decks were scarlet 

And all her shattered crew. 
She sank among the white ghost ships 

And stained them through and through. 

The grim Titanic greeted her 

"And who art thou?" she said; 
"Why dost thou join our ghostly fleet 

Arrayed in living red? 
We are the ships of sorrow 

Who spend the weary night, 
Until the dawn of Judgment Day, 

Obscure and still and white." 

"Nay, " said the scarlet visitor, 

"Though I sink through the sea 
A ruined thing that was a ship 

I sink not as did ye. 
For ye met with your destiny 

By storm or rock or fight, 
vSo through the lagging centuries 

Ye wear your robes of white. 

" But never crashing iceberg, 
Nor honest shot of foe. 



THE WHITE SHIPS AND THE RED 285 

Nor hidden reef has sent me 

The way that I must go. 
My wound that stains the waters, 

My blood that is like flame, 
Bear witness to a loathly deed, 

A deed without a name. 



I went not forth to battle, es 

I carried friendly men. 
The children played about my decks. 

The women sang — and then — 
And then — the sun blushed scarlet 

And Heaven hid its face, 70 

The world that God created 

Became a shameful place ! 

My wrong cries out for vengeance, 

The blow that sent me here 
Was aimed in Hell. My dying scream 75 

Has reached Jehovah's ear. 
Not all the seven oceans 

Shall wash away the stain; 
Upon a brow that wears a crown 

I am the brand of Cain. " so 

When God's great voice assembles 

The fleet on Judgment Day, 
The ghosts of ruined ships will rise 

In sea and strait and bay. 
Though they have lain for ages ss 

Beneath the changeless flood. 
They shall be white as silver : 

But one — shall be like blood. 



286 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

THEODOSIA GARRISON 

Gentlemen of honor, gentlemen of worth — 

One by one they read and signed and handed on the pen. 

Assuming each his station among the powers of earth, 
Claiming life and liberty for all true men. 
Gentlemen, our time is come to sign your deed again! 

Gentlemen of dignity, gentlemen of wit — 

Hancock, Franklin, Jefferson, men in buff and blue — 

Pledged lives, fortunes, honor and were glad of it — 
Pledged them to all mankind, as a brother's due. 
Gentlemen, our time is come to take your pledge anew I 

Gentlemen of courage, gentlemen of might — 

We, your children's children, thank God you spoke 
for us. 

Writ across our Nation shine your words of light 
Answering a tyrant in letters luminous. 
Gentlemen, we sign again, we pledge each other thus! 

AMERICA, TO ARMS! 

BLANCHE SHOEMAKER WAGSTAFF 

She stands, a guardian of the endless sea, 

Her garb is golden, and her lips are flame. 
She is the portal of Eternity 

And Beauty is the realm from whence she came ! 
She is the voice of many bleeding lands — 

America, she calls ! To Arms ! Arise ! 

For like]a shimmering sabre in the skies 
In scarlet glow she stands 
A guardian of the earth and sea — 
Liberty! 



THE GREAT BLUE TENT 287 

THE GREAT BLUE TENT 

EDITH WHARTON 

Come unto me, said the Flag, 

Ye weary and sore oppressed; 
For I am no shot-riddled rag, 
But a great blue tent of Rest. 

Ye heavy-laden, come 

On the aching feet of dread. 
From ravaged town, from murdered home. 

From your tortured and your dead. 

All they that heat at my crimson bars 

Shall enter without demur. 
Though the round earth rock with the wind of 

wars. 
Not one of my folds shall stir. 

See, here is warmth and sleep. 

And a table largely spread; 
I give garments to them that weep. 

And for gravestones I give bread. 

But what, through my inmost fold. 
Is this cry on the winds of war? 
"Are you grown so old, are you grown 
so cold, 
O Flag that was once our Star? 

"Where did you learn that bread is life, 
And where that fire is warm — 
You, that took the van of a world-wide strife, 
As an eagle takes the storm ? 

20 



288 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

"Where did you learn that Men are bred 
Where hucksters bargain and gorge ; 
And where that down makes a softer bed 
Than the snows of Valley Forge? 

" Come up, come up to the stormy sky, 
Where our fierce folds rattle and hum, 
For Lexington taught us how to fly, 
And we dance to Concord's drum." 

Flags of Freedom, said the Flag, 
Brothers of wind and sky; 

/, too, was once a tattered rag, 

And I wake and shake at your cry, 

1 tug and tug at the anchoring place, 
Where my drowsy folds are caught; 

I strain to he off on the old fierce chase 
Of the foe we have always fought. 

t 

People I made, said the Flag, 
And welded from sea to sea, 

1 am still the shot-riddled rag 

That shrieks to he free, to he free. 

Oh, cut my silken ties 

From the roof of the palace of Peace; 
Give hack my Stars to the skies, 

My Stripes to the storm-striped seas. 

Or else, if you hid me yield, 

Then down with my crimson hars, 

And o'er all my azure field 
Sow poppies instead of Stars. 



SHOULDER TO SHOULDER 289 

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER 

CLINTON SCOLLARD 

Shoulder to shoulder ! Each man in his place ! 
Shoulder to shoulder, and "right about! face!" 
We've a duty to do ere we grow a day older, 
And the way we can do it is — shoulder to shoulder ! 

Shoulder to shoulder ! Each man in the line 1 
Shoulder to shoulder ! The Flag for a sign ! 
Yes, let us not weaken, but let us grow bolder, 
And rally and sally with — "shoulder to shoulder!" 

Shoulder to shoulder ! Each man in his might ! 
Shoulder to shoulder ! We fight for the right ! 
The land of our love — may our courage enfold her! 
May we work — and not shirk — for her, shoulder 
to shoulder! 

THE AVENUE OF THE ALLIES 

ALFRED NOYES 

This is the song of the wind as it came 
Tossing the flags of the nations to flame : 

I am the breath of God. I am His laughter. 
I am His Liberty. That is my name. 

So it descended, at night, on the city. 

So it went lavishing beauty and pity, 

Lighting the lordliest street of the world 

With half of the banners that earth has unfurled ; 

Over the lamps that are brighter than stars, 

Laughing aloud on its way to the wars, 

Proud as America, sweeping along 

Death and destruction like notes in a song. 

Leaping to battle as man to his mate. 



290 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Joyous as God when he moved to create, — 
Never was voice of a nation so glorious, 

Glad of its cause and afire with its fate ! 

Never did eagle on mightier pinion 

Tower to the height of a brighter dominion, 

Kindling the hope of the prophets to flame, 

Calling aloud on the deep as it came, 

Cleave me a way for an army with banners. 

I am His Liberty. That is my name. 

Know you the meaning of all they are doing? 
Know you the light that their soul is pursuing? 
Know you the might of the world they are making, 
This nation of nations whose heart is awaking? 
What is this mingling of peoples and races? 
Look at the wonder and joy on their faces! 
Look how the folds of the union are spreading ! 
Look, for the nations are come to their wedding. 
How shall the folk of our tongue be afraid of it ? 
England was bom of it . England was made of it , 
Made of this welding of tribes into one, 
This marriage of pilgrims that followed the sun ! 
Briton and Roman and Saxon were drawn 
By winds of this Pentecost, out of the dawn, 
Westward, to make her one people of many; 
But here is a union more mighty than any. 
Know you the soul of this deep exultation? 
Know you the word that goes forth to this nation. 
/ am the breath of God. I am His Liberty. 
Let there be light over all His creation. 

Over this Continent, wholly united, 

They that were foemen in Europe are plighted. 

Here in a league that our blindness and pride 



THE AVENUE OF THE ALLIES 291 

Doubted and flouted and mocked and denied, 
Dawns the Republic, the laughing, gigantic 
Europe, united, beyond the Atlantic. 
That is America, speaking one tongue. 
Acting her epics before they are sung, 
Driving her rails from the palms to the snow, 
Through States that are greater than Emperors know, 
Forty -eight States that are empires in might. 
But ruled by the will of one people tonight, 
Nerved as one body, with net- works of steel. 
Merging their strength in the one Commonweal, 
Brooking no poverty, mocking at Mars, 
Building their cities to talk with the stars. 
Thriving, increasing by myriads again 
Till even in numbers old Europe shall wane, — 
How shall a son of the England they fought 
Fail to declare the full pride of his thought, 
Stand with the scoffers who, year after year, 
Bring the Republic their half -hidden sneer? 
Now, as in beauty she stands at our side, 
Who shall withhold the full gift of his pride ? 
Not the great England who knows that her son, 
Washington, fought her, and Liberty won. 
England, whose names like the stars in their station. 
Stand at the foot of that world's Declaration, — 
Washington, Livingston, Langdon, she claims them. 
It is her right to be proud when she names them, 
Proud of that voice in the night as it came, 
Tossing the flags of the nations to flame : 

I am the breath oj God. I am His laughter. 
I am His Liberty. That is my name. 

Flags, in themselves, are but rags that are dyed. 
Flags, in that wind, are a nation enskied. 



292 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

See, how they grapple the night as it rolls 
And trample it under like triumphing souls. 
Over the city that never knew sleep, 
Look at the crimsons and golds as they leap. 
Thousands of tri-colors laughing for France, 
Ripple and whisper and thunder and dance; 
Thousands of flags for Great Britain aflame 
Answer their sisters in Liberty's name. 
Belgium is burning in pride overhead. 
Nippon is near, and her sun-rise is red. 
Under and over and fluttering between 
Italy burgeons in red, white and green. 
See, how they climb like adventurous flowers. 
Over the tops of the terrible towers. . . . 

There, in the darkness, the glories are mated. 
There, in the darkness, a world is created. 
There, in this Pentecost, streaming on high. 
There, with a glory of stars in the sky. 

There the broad flag of the world and its liberty 
Rides the proud night-wind and tyrannies die. 

PRO PATRIA 

SIR OWEN SEAMAN 

England, in this great fight to which you go 

Because, where Honour calls you, go you must, 
Be glad, whatever comes, at least to know 
You have your quarrel just. 

Peace was your care ; before the nations' bar 

Her cause you pleaded and her ends you sought; 
But not for her sake, being what you are. 
Could you be bribed and bought. 



i 



PRO PATRIA 293 

Others may spurn the pledge of land to land, 

May with the brute sword stain a gallant past; 
But by the seal to which you set your hand, 
Thank God, you still stand fast! 

Forth, then, to front that peril of the deep 

With smiling Hps and in your eyes the light, 
Steadfast and confident, of those who keep 
Their storied 'scutcheon bright. 

And we, whose burden is to watch and wait — 

High-hearted ever, strong in faith and prayer, 
We ask what offering we may consecrate. 
What humble service share. 

To steel oiu" souls against the lust of ease; 
To find our welfare in the general good ; 
To hold together, merging all degrees 
In one wide brotherhood; — 

To teach that he who saves himself is lost ; 

To bear in silence though our hearts may bleed; 
To spend ourselves, and never count the cost, 
For others' greater need; — 

To go OUT quiet ways, subdued and sane; 

To hush all vulgar clamour of the street ; 
With level calm to face alike the strain 
Of triumph or defeat ; 

This be our part, for so we serve you best, 

So best confirm their prowess and their pride, 
Your warrior sons, to whom in this high test 
Our fortunes we confide. 



294 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

AMERICA 

ELEANOR DUNCAN WOOD 

Mother of outstretched arms and generous breast. 
Let never welcomed wanderers strike at thee ! 

Who seek from far thy Canaan of the West, 
May they henceforth as thine own children be ! 

Not one hast thou compelled; unurged they came 
To where the altar fires of Freedom shine. 

Let them remember how to feed that flame. 

Men smiled at death and poured their blood as wine. 

Ours that best heritage, dear native land 
Of Liberty, wrung from the tyrant's sway. 

Oh, may there be no Judas in our band 
To kiss and kill, to barter and betray! 

But sons and foster-sons alike stand fast 

To guard our Mother from an Old World chain. 
And hurl the stout defiance of the Past, 
. "Freemen we are! Freemen we shall remain!" 



THE UNION 

ALFRED NOYES 

You that have gathered together the sons of all races, 

And welded them into one, 
Lifting the torch of your Freedom on hungering faces 

That sailed to the setting sun ; 

You that have made of mankind in your own proud regions 

The music of man to be, 
How should the old earth sing of you, now, as your legions 
Rise to set all men free ? 



TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 295 

How should the singer that knew the proud vision and 
loved it, 
In the days when not all men knew, 10 

Gaze, through his tears, on the light, now the world 
has approved it; 
Or dream, when the dream comes true? 

How should he sing when the Spirit of Freedom in thunder 

Speaks, and the wine-press is red; 
And the sea-winds are loud with the chains that are 15 
broken asunder 

And nations that rise from the dead ? 

Flag of the sky, proud flag of that wide communion, 

Too mighty for thought to scan ; 
Flag of the many in one, and that last world-union 

That kingdom of God in man ; 20 

Ours was a dream, in the night, of that last federation, 

But yours is the glory unfurled, — 
The marshalled nations and stars that shall make one 
nation 

One singing star of the world. 

TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE 

LAURENCE BINYON 

Men of America, you that march to-day 
Thro' roaring London, supple and lean of limb, 
Glimpsed in the crowd I saw you, and in your eye 
Something alert and grim — 

As knowing on what stern call you march away 5 

To the wrestle of nations — saw your heads held high, 
And, that same moment, far in a flittering beam 
High over old and storied Westminster 



296 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

The Stars and Stripes with England's colors clear 
10 Sisterly twined and proud on the air astream. 

I see again the fabulous city arise, 

Rock-cradled, white and soaring out of the sea. 

Manhattan! Queen of thronged and restless bays 

And of daring ships is she. 
15 O, lands beyond, that into the sunset gaze, 

Limitless, teeming continent of surmise ! 

I drink again that diamond air, I thrill 

To the lure of a wonder more than the wondrous past. 

And see before me ages yet more vast 
20 Rising and challenging heart and mind and will. 

Taps of the Drum ! Again you have heard them beat ; 
And the answer comes, a continent arms! Dread, 
Pity, and Grief, there is no escape; the call 
Is the call of the risen Dead. 

25 Terrible year of the nation's trampling feet! 
An angel had blown his trumpet over all 
From the ends of the earth, from East to uttermost West, 
Because of the soul of man that shall not fail. 
That will not make refusal or turn and quail, 

30 No, nor for all calamity stay its quest. 

And here, here too, is the New World, born of pain 
In destiny-spelling hours. The old world breaks 
Its mold, and life runs fierce and fluid, a stream 
That floods, dissolves, remakes. 

35 Each pregnant moment, charged to its extreme, 
Quickens unending future; and all's vain 
" But the onward mind that dares the oncoming years 
And takes their storm, a master. Life shall then 
Transfigure Time with yet more marvelous men. 

« Hail to the sunrise ! Hail to the Pioneers ! 



HERE: AND THERE 297 

HERE: AND THERE 
September, 19 14 

F. W. BOURDILLON 

Here 

Soft benediction of September sun ; 

Voices of children, laughing as they run; 

Green English lawns, bright flowers and butterflies ; 

And over all the blue embracing skies. 

There 

Tumult and roaring of the incessant gun ; 
Dead men and dying, trenches lost and won ; 
Blood, mud, and havoc, bugles, shoutings, cries; 
And over all the blue embracing skies. 



YOUNG AND OLD 

HENRY ALLSOP 

Voting. What makes the dale so strange, my dear.? 

What makes the dale so strange ? 
Old. The men have gone from the dale, my dear, 

And that makes all the change. 

Young. The lanes and glens are still at night. 
No laughter or songs I hear. 

Old. Our lover-lads have marched to the fight, 

And maidens are lonely, my dear. 

Young. The kine are slow to come to the call 
That once were all so quick. 

Old. They miss the voice known best of all, 

Of John or brother Dick. 



298 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Young. And will the dale be always strange 
And dull and sad, my dear? 

Old. Ay, lassie, we shall feel the change 

For many a mournful year. 

THE EMPTY COAT 

LON BRIER 

'Tain't no use, a-hangin' there. 

On its peg no more ! 

Sleeves a-showin' too much wear, 

Pocket badly tore. 

Prob'ly, when the war is done, 

It'll be too small. 

Guess he'll have another one — 

If he comes at all. 

But it's sacred in our eyes; 

Somethin' like a prayer; 

Now it looks so lonesome- wise. 

Jest a-hangin' there. 

Seems like yeste'day I stood, 

Watched him 'bout his chores; 

Bringin' in the kitchen wood, 

Stompin' 'cross the floors. 

Laughed to see him snoopin' round, 

Like he used to snoop, 

Whistlin' happy when he found 

Ma was makin' soup! 

Now that he ain't here no more 

Ma and me jest glance 

Up at that old coat he wore 

'Fore he went to France. 

Nights, when all the doors is shet, 

'Fore I go up -stair, 



LETTERS FROM HOME 299 

Touch its sleeve an' find it wet — 
Ma's be'n cryin' there. 
Somethin's smartin' my eyes, too, 
Have to wink 'em tight, 
When I whisper, "Proud o' you! 
Good night, lad! Good night. " 

LETTERS FROM HOME 

ERIC P. DAWSON 

Night like a sable pall 
And the clouds hang low. 
And out of the gloom a star 
Shoots by with a pale white glow. 

Feet that stumble — and eyes 
That have lost their sight — 
A voice whispers "Courage!" 
A hand stretched out in the night. 

Dawn — and the day breaks drear — 
And how will it end? 
Hope murmurs once again 
In the voice of a friend. 

So are your letters to me 
From across the sea — 
Winged Courage, winged Cheer 
And Hope for what is to be. 

RENUNCIATION 

STRICKLAND GILLILAN 

'Twas yesteryear I "shortened him" and smiled to see 
him creep; 
'Twas yesteryear with spool and string he used to sit 
and play; 



300 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

'Twas yesteryear I soothed him in these very arms to 
sleep — 
A six-foot man in soldier-clothes went marching off 
today. 

5 Scarce yestermom I helped him take his first unsteady 
step; 
'Twas yestemoon his earliest ,word I joyed to hear 
him say; 
Since yestere'en I kissed his bumps to comfort him — 
hark! "Hep! 
Attention! Forward, march! Guide right!" rings in 
my ears today. 

'Twas yesterday my soul was sweet with motherly con- 
tent; 
10 But yesterday "I thank thee, Lord!" was all my lips 
could pray; 
And yesterday I did not know what fear and heartache 
meant — 
Did something in me perish as I watched him go today ? 

Yet, yesteryear I should have sensed the man-child at 
my knee; 
And yesterday I should have known not every month 
is May. 
15 Outranking mine his country's need of godlings such 
as he — 
My heart with shame were bursting had he slacked 
his bit today! 

THE FATHER OF THE MAN 

EDGAR A. GUEST 

I can't help thinkin' o' the lad! 

Here's summer bringin' trees to fruit. 



THE FATHER OF THE MAN 301 

An' every bush with roses clad, 

An' nature in her finest suit, 
An' all things as they used to be 

In days before the war came on. 
Yet time has changed both him an' me, 

An' I am here, but he is gone. 

The orchard's as it was back then 

When he was just a little tyke ; 
The lake's as calm an' fair as when 

We used to go to fish for pike. 
There's nothing different I can see 

That God has made about the place, 
Except the change in him an' me, 

An' that is difficult to trace. 

I only know one day he came 

An' found me in the barn alone. 
To some he might have looked the same, 

But he was not the lad I 'd known. 
His soul, it seemed, had heard the call 

As plainly as a mortal can. 
Before he spoke to me at all, 

I saw my boy become a man. 

I can't explain just what occurred; 

I sat an' talked about it there; 
The dinner-bell I never heard. 

Or if I did, I didn't care. 
But suddenly it seemed to me 

Out of the dark there came a light. 
An' in a new way I could see 

That I was wrong an' he was right. 



302 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

I can't help thinkin' o' the lad ! 

He's fightin' hate an' greed an' lust, 
An' here am I, his doting dad,, 

Believin' in a purpose just. 
Time was I talked the joy o' play, 

But now life's goal is all I see; 
The petty- thoughts I've put away — 

My boy has made a man o' me. 

SOCKS 

JESSIE POPE 

Shining pins that dart and click 
In the fireside's sheltered peace 

Check the thoughts that cluster thick - 
20 plain and then decrease. 

He was brave — well, so was I — 
Keen and merry, but his lip 

Quivered when he said good-bye — 
Purl the seam-stitch, purl and slip. 

Never used to living rough, 

Lots of things he'd got to learn; 

Wonder if he's warm enough — 
Knit 2, catch 2, knit i, turn. 

Hark! The paper-boys again! 

Wish that shout could be suppressed; 
Keeps one always on the strain — 

Knit off p, and slip the rest. 

Wonder if he's fighting now. 

What he's done an' where he's been; 

He'll come out on top, somehow — 
Slip I, knit 2, purl 14. 



IN HOMELAND 303 

IN HOMELAND 

CLINTON SCOLLARD 

There is a house in Homeland that I may call mine own, 
And I may sit within it beside the warm hearthstone; 
But if I dwelt in Flanders, or lived in Picardy, 
Think you I would be sitting beneath mine own roof tree ? 

There is a Homeland garden in which I may behold 5 

The pansies I have planted, the gleaming marigold; 
But if I dwelt in Flanders, or lived in Picardy, 
Think, if I owned a garden, what would my garden be? 

I have loved ones I cherish beyond all things of earth;. 
They bring to me my solace ; they make for me my mirth ; 10 
But if I dwelt in Flanders, or lived in Picardy : 
Dear God, spare us in Homeland the speechless agony. 

A BOY OVER THERE 

FRANK L. STANTON 

Home's looking lonesome and trouble to spare, 

But you think of a boy Over There ! 
And it's help to the heart with the crosses to bear — 

That thought of a boy Over There! 
Rain for the eyes when we saw him depart, 5 

But he's fighting the battle with Home in his heart ! 
Wide waste of water and far ways to roam. 

But he's fighting for Home. 

There's a woman a-dreaming when shadows fall drear — 
Dreams of a boy Over There ; 10 

And there's Light in the dream and the Light is a prayer 
Of Love for a boy Over There, 

Of Love that went with him and made the way bright — 

Strength of the battle and sword in the fight! 

21 



304 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

15 And the dream and the prayer find their way o'er the 
foam 
Where he's fighting for Home. 

Home's looking lonesome — the cross and the care, 

But — a boy's Over There! 
And it's great to be glimpsing the glory he'll wear 
20 With the boys Over There! 

That's the heal for the hurt — that's the peace and the 

pride ; 
He came when his country called sons to her side ! 
And not from the Love of a Mother they roam 
When they're fighting for Home ! 

A GIRL'S SONG 

KATHARINE TYNAN 

The Meuse and Marne have little waves; 

The slender poplars o'er them lean; 
One day they will forget the graves 

That give the grass its living green. 

5 Some brown French girl the rose will wear 

That springs above his comely head; 
Will twine it in her russet hair, 
Nor wonder why it is so red. 

His blood is in the rose's veins, 
10 His hair is in the yellow corn ; 

My grief is in the weeping rains 
And in the keening wind forlorn. 

Flow softly, softly, Marne and Meuse 
Tread lightly all ye browsing sheep; 
15 Fall tenderly, O silver dews. 

For here my dear Love lies asleep. 



THINGS THAT WERE YOURS 305 

The earth is on his sealed eyes, 

The beauty marred that was my pride; 

Would I were lying where he lies, 
And sleeping sweetly by his side ! 

The spring will come by Meuse and Marne, 
The birds be blithesome in the tree; 

I heap the stones to make his cairn 
Where many sleep as sound as he. 

THINGS THAT WERE YOURS 

DYNELEY HUSSEY 

These things were yours, these little simple things; 

You touched them, used them one time, loved them well. 
Now you are gone, but still about them clings 

The fragrance of 3^our hands adorable. 
These childish books ; these learned works well-thumbed ; 

These time-stained prints; these comfortable chairs; 
This music, and this album where you gummed 

Your childhood's treasure; these Italian jars; 
This little cup blue-patterned ; this old bed ; 

These sheets that whitely wrapt you slumbering; 
These garden-walks and autumn- tinted trees, 

That knew your laughter, and past numbering 
These blades of grass that bent beneath your tread : 
Because they once were yours, I love all these. 

WHEN I COME HOME 

LESLIE COULSON 

When I come home, dear folk o ' mine, 
We'll drink a cup of olden wine; 
And yet, however rich it be, 
No wine will taste so good to me 



306 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

As English air. How I shall thrill 
To drink it in on Hampstead Hill 
When I come home ! 

When I come home, and leave behind 
Dark things I would not call to mind, 
I'll taste good ale and home-made bread. 
And see white sheets and pillows spread. 
And there is one who'll softly creep 
To kiss me, ere I fall asleep, 
And tuck me 'neath the counterpane, 
And I shall be a boy again 

When I come home ! 

When I come home, from dark to light, 
And tread the roadways long and white, 
And tramp the lanes I tramped of yore, 
And see the village greens once more, 
The tranquil farms, the meadows free, 
The friendly trees that nod to me. 
And hear the lark beneath the sun, 
'Twill be good pay for what I've done. 
When I come home ! 

HIGH HEART 

ALINE KILMER 

The sea that I watch from my window 

Is gray and white; 
I see it toss in the darkness 

All the night. 
My soul swoops down to sorrow 

As the sea-gulls dip, 
And all my love flies after 

Your lonely ship. 



IN FRANCE 307 

Yet I am not despairing; 

Though we must part, 
Nothing can be too bitter 

For my high heart ; 
All in the dreary midnight, 

Watching the flying foam, 
I wait for a golden morning 

When you come home. 



IN FRANCE 

FRANCIS LEDWIDGE 

The silence of maternal hills 

Is round me in my evening dreams, 

And round me music-making bells 

And mingling waves of pastoral streams. 

Whatever way I turn, I find 
The paths are old unto me still, 

The hills of home are in my mind, 
And there I wander as I will. 

CHA TILL MACCRUIMEIN 

Departure of the Fourth Camerons 

E. A. MACKINTOSH 

The pipes in the streets were playing bravely. 

The marching lads went by ; 
With merry hearts and voices singing 

My friends marched out to die ; 
But I was hearing a lonely pibroch 

Out of an older war, 
'Farewell, farewell, farewell, MacCrimmon, 

MacCrimmon comes no more." 



308 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

And every lad in his heart was dreaming 

Of honor and wealth to come, 
And honor and noble pride were calling 

To the tune of the pipes and drum; 
But I was hearing a woman singing 

On dark Dun vegan shore, 
"In battle or peace, with wealth or honor, 

MacCrimmon comes no more." 

And there in front of the men were marching, 

With feet that made no mark, 
The grey old ghosts of the ancient fighters 

Come back again from the dark; 
And in front of them all MacCrimmon piping 

A weary tune and sore, 
"On the gathering day, for ever and ever, 

MacCrimmon comes no more." 

THE SPIRES OF OXFORD 

(Seen from the train) 

WINIFRED M. LETTS 

I saw the spires of Oxford 

As I was passing by. 
The gray spires of Oxford 

Against a pearl-gray sky. 
My heart was with the Oxford men 

Who went abroad to die. 

The years go fast at Oxford, 
The golden years and gay. 

The hoary colleges look down 
On careless boys at play. 

But when the bugles sounded war 
They put their games away. 



AT THE WARS 309 

They left the peaceful river, 

The cricket-field, the quad, 
The shaven lawns of Oxford, 

To seek a bloody sod — 
They gave their merry youth away 

For country and for God. 

God rest you, happy gentlemen. 

Who laid your good lives down, 
Who took the khaki and the gun 

Instead of cap and gown. 
God bring you to a fairer place 

Than even Oxford town. 



AT THE WARS 

ROBERT NICHOLS 

Now that I am ta'en away 

And may not see another day, 

What is it to my eye appears? 

What sound rings in my stricken ears? 

Not even the voice of any friend 

Or eyes beloved world- without-end, 

But scenes and sounds of the country-side 

In far England across the tide : 

An upland field when spring's begun, 

]\Iellow beneath the evening sun .... 

A circle of loose and lichened w^all 

Over which seven red pines fall .... 

An orchard of wizen blossoming trees 

Wherein the nesting chaffinches 

Begin again the self -same song 

All the late April day-time long .... 

Paths that lead a shelving course 



310 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Between the chalk scarp and the gorse 
By English downs ; and oh ! too well 
I hear the hidden, clanking bell 

Of wandering sheep I see the brown 

Twilight of the huge, empty down 
Soon blotted out ! for now a lane 
Glitters with warmth of May-time rain. 
And on a shooting briar I see 
A yellow bird who sings to me. 

O yellow-hammer, once I heard 
Thy yaffle when no other bird 
Could to my sunk heart comfort bring; 
But now I would not have thee sing 

' So sharp thy voice is with the pain 
Of England I may not see again ! 
Yet sing thy song : there answereth 
Deep in me a voice which saith : 

''The gorse upon the twilit down, 
The English loam so sunset brown, 
The bowed pines and the sheep-bells' clamor, 
The wet, lit lane and the yellow-hammer, 
The orchard and the chaffinch song. 
Only to the Brave belong. 
And he shall lose their joy for aye 
If their price he cannot pay, 
Who shall find them dearer far 
Enriched by blood after long War. " 

HOME THOUGHTS IN LAVENTIE 

E. WYNDHAM TENNANT 

Green gardens in Laventie ! 
Soldiers only know the street 



HOME THOUGHTS IN LAVENTIE 311 

Where the mud is churned and splashed about 
By battle-wending feet; 
And yet beside one stricken house there is a glimpse of 
grass. 
Look for it when you pass. 

Beyond the church whose pitted spire 

Seems balanced on a strand 
Of swaying stone and tottering brick 
Two roofless ruins stand, 
And here behind the wreckage where the back wall 
should have been 
We found a garden green. 

The grass was never trodden on, 

The little path of gravel 
Was overgrown with celandine, 

No other folk did travel 
Along its weedy surface, but the nimble-footed mouse 

Running from house to house. 

So all among the vivid blades 

Of soft and tender grass 
We lay, nor heard the limber wheels 

That pass and ever pass, 
In noisy continuity until their stony rattle 

Seems in itself a battle. 

At length we rose up from this ease 

Of tranquil happy mind. 
And searched the garden's little length 
A fresh pleasaunce to find; 
And there, some yellow daffodils and jasmine hanging 
high 
Did rest the tired eye. 



312 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

The fairest and most fragrant 

Of the many sweets we found, 
Was a Httle bush of Daphne flower 
Upon a grassy mound, 
And so thick were the blossoms set and so divine the 
scent 
That we were well content. 

Hungry for spring I bent my head ; 

The perfume fanned my face. 
And all my soul was dancing 
In that little lovely place, 
Dancing with a measured step from wrecked and shattered 
towns 
Away . . . upon the Downs. 

I saw green banks of daffodil, 
Slim poplars in the breeze. 
Great tan-brown hares in gusty March 
A-courting on the leas; 
And meadows with their glittering streams, and silver 
scurrying dace, 
Home — what a perfect place! 

WHILE SUMMERS PASS 

ALINE MICHAELIS 

Summer comes and summer goes. 
Buds the primrose, fades the rose; 
But his footfall on the grass, 
Coming swiftly to my door, 
I shall hear again no more. 
Though a thousand summers pass. 

Once he loved the clovers well, 
Loved the larkspur and bluebell, 



SYMPATHY 313 

And the scent the plum-blooms yield; 
But strange flowers his soul beguiled, 
Pallid lilies, laurels wild. 
Blooming in a crimson field. 

So he plucked the laurels there, 
And he found them sweet and fair 
In that field of blood-red hue ; 
And, when on a summer night 
Moonlight drenched my clovers white, 
Lo! He plucked Death's lilies, too. 

It may be that e'en to-night, 
In the Gardens of Delight, 
Where his shining soul must dwell, 
He has found some flowers more sweet 
Than the clovers at my feet, 
Some celestial asphodel. 

But w^hile summer comes and goes, 
With the primrose and the rose 
Comes his footfall on the grass — 
Gladly, lightly to my door — 
I shall hear it echo o'er, 
Though a thousand summers pass. 

SYMPATHY 

(Written by a stoker on one of His Majesty's ships) 
The middle watch. A wicked night 
With storm and driving sleet : 
A grim destroyer fights her way 
Through breaking seas and blinding spray, 
Alert and ready for * ' The Day ' ' 
That's promised to our Fleet. 



314 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

A gun's-crew standing by their gun 
The spray completely drenches; 
They stick it out — they do at sea, 
And one man to his chum says he : 
"What a cold, bitter night 't must be 
For fellows in the trenches!" 

OUR HITCH IN HELLi 

WILLIAM CHILDS 

I 'm sitting here and thinking of the things I left behind, 
And I hate to put on paper what is running through my 

mind. 
We've dug a million trenches and cleared ten miles of 

ground, 
And a meaner place this side of hell, I know it can't be 

found. 
But there's still one consolation — gather closely while 

I tell- 
When we die we're bound for heaven, for we've done 

our hitch in hell. 

We've built a hundred kitchens for the cook to stew 

our beans; 
We've stood a hundred guard-mounts and cleared the 

camp latrines; 
We've washed a million mess-kits and peeled a million 

spuds ; 
We've strapped a miUion blanket-rolls and washed a 

million duds. 
The number of parades we've made is very hard to tell. 
But we'll not parade in heaven, for we've done our hitch 

in hell. 



1 From Songs from the Trenches, copyright, 1918, by Harper & 
Brothers. 



YANKS 315 

We've killed a million cooties that tried to take our cots, 
And shaken all the icicles from out our army socks; 
We've marched a hundred thousand miles and made a 15 

thousand camps; 
We've sat up many a cold night sewing buttons on our 

pants. 
But when our work on earth is done our friends behind 

will tell, 
"When they died they went to heaven, for they'd done 

their hitch in hell." 

When the final taps are sounded, and we lay aside our 

cares, 
And we do the very last parade right up the golden 20 

stairs, 
And the angels bid us welcome, and the harps begin to 

play, 
"Peace on earth, good-will toward men," you'll hear us 

loudly say. 
It is then we'll hear St. Peter tell us loudly with a yell, 
"Just take a front seat, mister, for you've done your 
hitch in hell." 



YANKS 

JAMES W. FOLEY 

O'Leary, from Chicago, and a first-class fightin' man, 
Born in County Clare or Kerry, where the gentle art 

began ; 
Sergeant Dennis P. O'Leary, from somewhere on Archie 

road, 
Dodgin' shells and smellin' powder while the battle 

ebbed and flowed. 



3i6 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

5 And the captain says: "O'Leary, from your fightin' 

company 
Pick a dozen fightin' Yankees and come skirmishin' 

with me; 
Pick a dozen fightin' devils, and I know it's you who 

can." 
And O'Leary, he saluted like a first class-fightin* man. 

O'Leary's eye was piercin' and O'Leary's voice was clear: 

10 * * Dimitri Georgenopulos ! ' ' and Dimitri answered ' ' Here !" 

Then "Vladimir Slaminsky! Step three paces to the 

front, 
For we're wantin' you to join us in a little Heinie hunt!" 
"Garibaldi Ravioli!" Garibaldi was to share; 
And "Ole Axel Kettelson!" and "Thomas Scalp-the 
^ Bear!" 
15 Who was Choctaw by inheritance, bred in the blood 
and bones. 
But set down in army records by the name of Thomas 
Jones. 

"Van Winkle Schuyler Stuyvesant!" Van Winkle was a 

bud 
From the ancient tree of Stuyvesant and had it in his 

blood; 
"Don Miguel de Colombo!" Don Miguel's next kin 
20 Were across the Rio Grande when Don Miguel went in. 
"Ulysses Grant O 'Sheridan!" Ulysses' sire, you see. 
Had been at Appomattox near the famous apple tree; 
And "Patrick Michael Casey!" Patrick Michael, you 

can tell, 
Was a fightin' man by nature with three fightin' names 

as well. 



MARCHING SONG 317 

**Joe Wheeler Lee!" And Joseph had a pair of fightin* 

eyes; 
And his granddad was a Johnny, as perhaps you might 

surmise ; 
Then "Robert Bruce MacPherson!" And the Yankee 

squad was done 
With "Isaac Abie Cohen!" once a light-weight champion. 

Then O'Leary paced 'em forward and, says he, "You 

Yanks, fall in!" 
And he marched 'em to the captain, "Let the skirmishin' 

begin," 
Says he, "the Yanks are comin', and you beat 'em if 

you can!" 
And saluted like a soldier and a first-class fightin' man! 



MARCHING SONG 

DANA BURNET 

When Pershing's men go marching into Picardy, marching, 

marching into Picardy — 
With their steel aslant in the sunlight and their great 

gray hawks a-wing 
And their wagons rumbling after them like thunder in the 
Spring — 

Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp 

Till the earth is shaken — - 5 

Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp 
Till the dead towns waken! 
And flowers fall, and shouts arise from Chaumont to the 

sea — 
When Pershing's men go marching, marching into 
Picardy ! 



3i8 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

10 Women of France, do you see them pass to the battle in 
the North? 
And do you stand in the doorways now as when your own 

went forth? 
Then smile to them, and call to them, and mark how 

brave they fare 
Upon the road to Picardy that only youth may dare ! 
Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp, 
15 Foot and horse and caisson — 

Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp. 
Such is Freedom's passion — 
And oh, take heart, ye weary souls that stand along the 

Lys, 
For the New World is marching, marching into Picardy ! 

20 April's sun is in the sky and April's in the grass — 

And I doubt not that Pershing's men are singing as they 

pass — 
For they are very young men, and brave men, and free — 
And they know why they are marching, marching into 
Picardy. 

Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp, 
25 Rank and file together — 

Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp. 
Through the April weather. 
And never Spring has thrust such blades against the 

light of dawn 
As yonder waving stalks of steel that move so shining on ! 

30 I have seen the wooden crosses at Ypres and Verdun, 
I have marked the graves of such as lie where the Marne 

waters run. 
And I know their dust is stirring by hill and vale and lea, 
And their souls shall be our captains who march to 

Picardy. 



THE ROAD 319 

Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp, 
Hope shall fail us never — 
Tramp, tramp, tramp, tramp, 
Forward and forever ! 
And God is on His Judgment seat, and Christ is on His 

tree — 
And Pershing's men are marching, marching into Picardy. 



THE ROAD 

GORDON ALCHIN 

When first the paving of the Road 

Rang to the tread of the marching Roman, 
And Caesar's legions seaward strode 
To find a yet unmastered foeman, — 
Full many a curse, of ancient flavor, 

Rolled far along the muddy Way; 
A curse upon the highway's paver. 
Whose echoes linger to this day ! 

A thousand years — (when England lay 

Beneath the heel of the Norman raider) :— 
The cobbles of the age-worn Way 

Echo the march of the mailed Crusader: 
Whilst many an oath, of pious fervour, 
Between their chaunt and roundelay, 
Gives proof to any close observer. 
That men are little changed to-day! 

Again a thousand 3^ears — again 

The ancient frontier Road enslaving, 
Come horse and cannon, motor-train: — 
All sweep along the narrow paving. 
22 



330 THE WORl.O AXO PKMOCRACV 

A wondrous oliango. you s.iy? but listen! 

Listen to the words they si\y I 
^^llat matter cannon, petrol, piston? 

The men are just the same to-day! 

KILMEXV 
(A Sono^ of the Trawlers'* 

ALFRED XOYES 

Dark, dark lay the drifters, against the red west. 

As tliey shot their long meshes of steel overside; 
And the oily green waters were rocking to rest 

WTien Kihneny went out. at the turn of the tide. 
And nobody knew where that lassie would roam. 

For the magic that called her was tapping unseen. 
It WIS well nigh a week ere Kilmeny came home. 

And nobody knew where Kibneny had been. 

She'd a gun at her bow that was Newcastle's best. 

And a gun at her stem that was fresh from the Cl\de. 
And a secret her skipper had never confessed. 

Not even at da^^-n. to his newly wed bride; 
And a wireless that whispered above like a gnome. 

The laughter of London, the boasts of Berlin. 
O, it may have been mermaids that lured her from home, 

But nobody knew where Kilmeny had been. 

It was dark when Kibncfty came home from lier quest. 

With her bridge dabbled red where her skipper had died ; 
But she moved like a bride with a rose at her breast; 

And "Well done. Kilmeny."' the admiral cried. 
Now at sixty-four fathom a conger may come. 

And nose at the bones of a drowned submarine; 
But late in the evening Kilmeny came home. 

And nobodv knew where Kilmen v had been. 



"FORM Fr;URS" 321 

There's a wandering shadow that stares at the foam, 2.5 

Though they sing all the night to old England, their 
queen, 

Late, late in the evening Kilmeny came home, 
And nobody knew where Kilmeny had been. 

"FORM FOURS" 

A Volunteer's Nightmare 

FRANK SIDfiWICK 

If you're Volunteer Artist or Athlete, or if you defend 

the home, 
You sacTifice "Ease" for "Attention," and march like 

a metronome; 
But of all elementary movements you learn in your 

Volunteer Corps 
The one that is really perplexing is known as the Forming 

of Fours. 

Imagine us numbered off from the right: the Sergeant 5 

faces the squad. 
And says that the odd files do not move — I never seem 

to Vje odd! 
And then his instructions run like this (very simple in 

black and whitej — 
"A pace to the rear with the left foot, and one to the 

right with the right." 

Of course if you don't think deeply, you do it without 

a hitch; 
You have only to know your right and left, and remember 10 

which is which ; 
But as soon as you try to be careful, you get in the deuce 

of a plight. 
With "a pace to the right with the left foot, and one to 

the rear with the right!" 



322 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Besides, when you're thoroughly muddled, the Sergeant 

doubles 3^our doubt 
By sa^dng that rules reverse themselves, as soon as 

you're "turned about"; 
15 So round 3"ou go on your right heel, and practice until 

you're deft 
At "a pace to the front wdth the right foot, and one to 

the left \^dth the left." 

In my dreams the Sergeant, the Kaiser, and Kipling 

mix my feet, 
Saying "East is left, and Right is Might, and never the 

twain shall meet!" 
In my nightmare squad all files are odd, and their Fours 

are horribly queer, 
20 With "a pace to the left with the front foot, and one to 

the right with the rear ! " 

HALF-PAST ELEVEN SQUARE 

C. FOX SMITH 
Reprinted by permission of London Punch, 

There's a town I know in Flanders, an' there ain't much 

else to say, 
But it's pretty much like most towns when the war 'as 

passed their way; 
There's tumbled shops an' 'ouses, an' there's brickbats 

everywhere, 
An' a place that British soldiers call 'Alf-past Eleven 

Square. 

5 There's a silly clock stuck up there that's forgot the way 
to chime. 
With its silly fingers pointin' to the same old bloomin' 
time; 



HALF-PAST ELEVEN SQUARE 323 

An' the world it keeps on tumin', but it makes no differ- 
ence there, 
For it never gets no later in 'Alf-past Eleven Square. 

There's a stink o' gas a-crawlin' where the people lived 

before, 
That it used to tell the time to when there 'ad n't been 10 

no war. 
In the day the whizz-bangs bustin', in the night the 

star-shells' glare, 
An' '00 cares what the time is in 'Alf-past Eleven Square ? 

You could walk for 'arf a day there, an' there's not a soul 
to meet 

In the empty smashed-up 'ouses an' the empty sand- 
bagged street; 

They've packed their traps up long since an' they've 15 
gone for change of air. 

For you bet it ain't no 'ealth-resort — 'Alf-past Eleven 
Square. 

An' it only wakes up sometimes, when the armies come 

and go, 
With the transport an' the wounded an' the big guns 

crawlin' slow; 
But let 'em come or let 'em go, the clock don't seem to care 
If it's Fritz or Tommy marchin' through 'Alf-past Eleven 20 

Square. 

But it's waitin' — waitin' — waitin' till the world goes on 

once more. 
An' the folk come back to live there as they used to live 

before, 
An' open wide the broken door an' climb the broken stair. 
An' move along its fingers in 'Alf-past Eleven Square. 



324 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

25 Yes, it's waitin' — waitin' — waitin*, just the same as you 

an' me, 
For the same world, only better than the old one used to 

be; 
An' I've got a barmy notion that I wish I might be there 
When twelve o'clock is strikin' in 'Alf-past Eleven Square. 

M-U-D 

JOHN OXENHAM 

This is an Ode 

Xo 

M-U-D— Mud! 

Mud the ubiquitous, 
5 Mud the iniquitous, 

Mud — you're the limit in life's vast adversities! 

Mud the all-prevalent, 

Mud the malevolent. 

Mud ! to the deuce with your ill-timed perversities ! 
10 Mud, you most wretched old 

Combine of wet and cold, 

V\/"hat were you made for, Mud? 

Sure you were n't prayed for, Mud ! 

What is the use of you? — if this abuse of you 
15 Could end the sluice of you — Mud, you'd be dud! 

Ill-suppressed, chill-infest, de'il possessed Mud, 

You're no good ! 

For it's — 

Mud on the ground, and mud in the air, 
20 And mud in your grub, and mud everywhere; 

Mud in your mouth, and mud in your nose. 

And mud in your boots, and mud 'twixt your toes. 

And mud, — O my Tailor! the mud on your clo'es! 

It's mud in your ears, and mud in your hair, 



THE HALF-HOUR'S FURLOUGH 325 

And mud in your tub, and mud — everywhere. 25 

It's mud in your bread, and mud in your bed — 

(If you happen to get one, I'll bet it's a wet one!) — 

It's mud in your eyes, roight down to their sockets, 

It's mud in your rifle, and mud in your pockets. 

It's mud Cockney bykes with each kyke that he mykes, 30 

And Taffy is fuller of mud than he likes. 

Pat says, "Now, be jabers, it's worse than the pig!" 

And Chow-Chow and Hindoo go out on fatigue. 

It's mud on the mewels, and mud on the 'osses, 

And mud in the graveyards, and mud on the crosses. 35 

It's mud on the tractors, and mud on the bikes. 

It's mud on Lord Topknot, and mud on Bill Sykes; 

It's mud in the gutters, and mud on the dykes. 

It's mud on the Scotties and mud on the Tykes ; 

You've mud in your tin-hat, and mud on your head, 4o 

You're mud while you're living, and mud when you're 

dead. 
There's mud on your temper, and mud on your soul, 
Just mud — the beginning, the end, and the whole. 
And when you go dud to a new neighborhood, 
Then all that is left of you's buried in mud. 45 

But the rest of you's clean; yes, the best of you's clean. 
As it never has been since your face first was seen 
In this quivering, slithering, gas-poisoned, withering, 

marrow-bone shivering 
Land of dud mud. 

THE HALF-HOUR'S FURLOUGH 

JOSEPH LEE 

I thought that a man went home last night 

From the trench where the tired men lie, 
And walked through the streets of his own old town — 

And I thought that man was I. 



326 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

5 And I walked through the gates of that good old town 
Which circles below the hill, 
And laves its feet in the river fair 
That fioweth so full and still. 

Gladly and gladly into my heart 
10 Came the old street sounds and sights, 
And pleasanter far than the Pleiades 
Was the gleam of the old street lights. 

And as I came by St. Mary's Tower, 
The old, solemn bell struck ten, 
15 And back to me echoed the memory 
Of my boyhood days again : 
Musing I turned me east about 
To the haunt of my fellow-men. 

There were some that walked, and some that talked, 
20 Beneath the old Arcade, 

And for comifort I elbowed am.ong the throng 
And hearkened to what they said. 

Some were that talked, and some that walked 
By one, by two, by three; 
25 And some there were who spake my name 
As though they loved me. 

And some who said, " Might he but return 

When this weary war is spent!" 
And it moved me much that their thought was such, 
30 And I turned me well content. 

I passed me along each familiar way. 

And paused at each friendly door. 
And thought of the things that had chanced within 

In the kindly days of yore. 



THE HALF-HOUR'S FURLOUGH 327 

Till I came to the place of my long, long love, 
Where she lay with her head on her arm ; 

And she sighed a prayer that the dear Lord should 
Shield my body from all harm. 

Ae kiss I left on her snow-white brow. 

And ane on her raven hair. 
And ane, the last, on her ruby lips, 

Syne forth again I fare. 

And I came to the home that will ay be home. 

And brightly the fires did burn, 
And at hearth, and in hearts, was a place for me 

'Gainst the day that I should return. 

Then I came to the glade where my mother was laid, 

'Neath the cypress and the yew : 
And she stood abune, and she said, "My son 
I am glad that your heart was true." 

And I passed me over both hill and down, 

By each well-remembered path, 
While the blessed dawn, like the love o' God, 

Stole over the sleeping Strath. 

And from a thorn came the pipe of a thrush. 

Like the first faint pipes of Peace : 
It slid with healing into my heart. 

And my sorrovv^ing found surcease. 



Then I awoke to the sound of guns, 
And in my ears was the cry : 

*'The Second Relief will stand to arms!" 
And I rose — for that man was I. 



328 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

ON LEAVING IRELAND 

(July 14, 1916) 

T. M. KETTLE 

As the sun died in blood, and hill and sea 
Grew to an altar, red with mystery, 
One came who knew me (it may be overmuch) 
Seeking the cynical and staining touch, 
But I, against the great sun's burial. 
Thought only of bayonet-flash and bugle-call. 
And saw him as God's eye upon the deep. 
Closed in the dream in which no women weep, 
And knew that even I shall fall on sleep. 



TO MY DAUGHTER BETTY, THE GIFT 
OF GOD 

(Elizabeth Dorothy) 

T. M. KETTLE 

In wiser days, my darling rosebud, blown 
To beauty proud as was your mother's prime. 
In that desired, delayed, incredible time. 
You'll ask why I abandoned you, my own. 
And the dear heart that was your baby throne, 
To dice with death. And oh! they'll give you 

rhyme 
And reason : some will call the thing sublime, 
And some decry it in a knowing tone. 
So here, while' the mad guns curse overhead. 
And tired men sigh y/ith mud for couch and floor. 
Know that we fools, now with the foolish dead. 
Died not for flag, nor King, nor Emperor, 
But for a dream, born in a herdsman's shed. 
And for the secret Scripture of the poor. 



THE CRICKETERS OF FLANDERS 329 

THE CRICKETERS OF FLANDERS 

JAMES NORMAN HALL 

The first to climb the parapet 
With "cricket balls" in. either hand; 
The first to vanish in the smoke 
Of God-forsaken No Man's Land; 
The first at the wire and soonest through, 
First at those red-mouthed hounds of hell, 
The Maxims, and the first to fall — 
They do their bit and do it well. 

Full sixty yards I have seen them throw 
With all that nicety of aim 
They learned on British cricket-fields. 
Ah, bombing is a Briton's game! 
Shell-hole to shell-hole, trench to trench, 
"Lobbing them over" with an eye 
As true as though it were a garde 
And friends were having tea close by. 

Pull down some art-offending thing 
Of carven stone, and in its stead 
Let splendid bronze commemorate 
Those men, the living and the dead. 
No figure of heroic size. 
Towering skyward like a god; 
But just a lad who might have stepped 
From any British bombing squad. 

His shrapnel helmet set atilt. 
His bombing waistcoat sagging low. 
His rifle slung across his back : 
Poised in the very act to throw. 



330 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

And let some graven legend tell 

Of those weird battles in the West 

Wherein he put old skill to use, 

And played old games with sterner zest. 

Thus should he stand, reminding those 
In less-believing days, perchance. 
How Britain's fighting cricketers 
Helped bomb the Germans out of France. 
And other eyes than ours would see ; 
And other hearts than ours would thrill ; 
And others say, as we have said: 
"A sportsman and a soldier still!" 

WHAT CAN I DO? 

LEE WILSON DODD 

"What can I do?" 
— Well, this I can, 
Live to be free, 
Or die like a man. 

Take me, break me, 
Cause that is Just, 
Use me, bruise me — 
Dust unto Dust ! 

I can eat less, 

Little, or naught. 

If my Faith be not sold. 

Nor my vision bought. 

I can still till the earth, 
Or dig in a mine. 
If I work for a Cause 
That I know divine. 



EASTER, 1918 331 

I can fight in a ditch 
Or drown in the sea, 
If I fight for, die for 

Liberty ! 20 

* * * 

Take me, break me, 
Cause that is Just, 
Use me, bruise me — 
Dust unto Dust! 

EASTER, 19 18 

JOHN RICHARDS 

Gone are the gold and the rose that shone in the delicate 
windows, 

Broken and ruined the tomb where ancient warriors 
sleep, 

Daylight stares through the roof still arching a shell- 
splintered pavement. 

Coffins stand by the altar, and Christ on his cross looks 
down. 

This was thy place, O Master, where the townsfolk 5 
praised thee on Sunday, 

This was thy town and thy valley — work, and laughter 
and love; 

Dear to thy heart were the days ere the crest of a steel- 
capped war wave 

Broke on the peaceful islet, and hamlet and people were 
gone. 

Bloody our hands, O Master, we raise them to thee 

notwithstanding 
(War and the world to-day are one, and the world is 10 

thine) ; 



332 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

From West to East we have come that thy priests may 

return to thine altars, 
And that again, of an evening, children may sing in the 

streets. 

DAWN 

("We will attack at 4:00 a.m.") 

DANIEL M. HENDERSON 

The hour of dawn is the hour of death — 
» I know by the gas on the morning's breath; 

I know by the cannon's racking scream, 
By the rifle's click, by the bayonet's gleam: 
I know by our crouching, hushed platoon 
That the word is near, that the hour is soon 
When we'll leap the top to the shibboleth — 
"The hour of dawn is the hour of death ! " 

The hour of dawn is the hour of life! 

A new world springs from the womb of strife ! 

A world uncursed by autocracy's brood; 

A world of beauty and brotherhood ; 

A world made true to a holy plan — 

The reign of love, the rule of Man ! 

It is hate and lust and war we knife — 

The hour of dawn is the hour of life! 

THE LADS OF LIEGE 

PERCY MACKAYE 

('* Horum Omnium fortissimi sunt BelgcB." — Cesar's 
"Commentaries") 
The lads of Liege, beyond our eyes 
They lie where beauty's laurels be — 
With lads of old Thermopylae, 

Who stayed the storming Persians. 



THE LADS OF LIEGE 333 

The lads of Liege, on glory's field 
They clasp the hands of Roland's men, 
Who lonely faced the Saracen 
Meeting the dark invasion. 

The lads— the deathless lads of Liege, 
They blazon through our living world 
Their land— the little land that hurled 
Olympian defiance. 

"Now make us room, now let us pass; 
Our monarch suffers no delay; 
To stand in mighty Caesar's way 
Beseems not LilHputians." 



"We make no room; you shall not pass. 
For freedom says your monarch nay ! 
And we have stood in Cesar's way 
Through freedom's generations. 

"And here we stand till freedom fall 
And Cassar cry, ere we succumb, 
Once more his horum omnium 
Fortissimi sunt Beiges. '' 

The monarch roars an iron laugh 
And cries on God to man his guns ; 
But Belgian mothers bore them sons 
Who man the souls within them. 

They bar his path, they hold their pass. 
They blaze in glory of the Gaul 
Till Caesar cries again "Of all 

The bravest are the Belgians!" 



334 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

O lads of Liege, brave lads of Liege, 
Your souls through glad Elysium 
Go chanting: horum omnium 
Fortissimi sunt Beiges! 



BELGIUM THE BAR-LASS 

A. MARY F. ROBINSON 

The night was still. The King sat with the Queen. 
She sang. Her maidens spun. A peaceful scene. 

Sudden, wild echoes shake the castle wall. 
Their foes come crashing through the outer hall. 

They rush like thunder down the gallery floor . . . 
. . . Someone has stolen the bolt that bars the door! 

No pin to hold the loops, no stick, no stave, 
Nothing ! An open door, an open grave ! 

Then Catherine Bar-lass thrust her naked arm 
(A girl's arm, white as milk, alive and warm) 

Right through the loops from which the bolt was gone : 
* 'Twill hold (she said) until they break the bone — 

My King, you have one instant to prepare!" 
She said no more, because the thrust was there. 



15 Oft have I heard that tale of Scotland's King 
The Poet, and Kate the Bar-lass. (Men will sing 

For aye the deed one moment brings to birth — 
Such moments are the ransom of our Earth.) 



THE MAN-BIRDS 335 

Brave Belgium, Bar-lass of our western world, 
Who, when the treacherous Prussian tyrant hurled 

His hordes against our peace, thrust a slight hand, 
So firm, to bolt our portals and withstand, 

Whatever prove the glory of our affray, 

Thine arm, thy heart, thine act have won the day ! 

THE MAN-BIRDS 

E. D. GIBBS 

High in the air where the cloud banks lie 

I watch the man-made swallows fly, 

And my thoughts speed far to that battle line, 

Where the cannon roar and the bullets whine — 

Out to those war-swept fields of France, 

Where a daring man takes a brave man's chance. 

Eyes of the hawk and frame of steel, 
Steady hands at the pilot wheel; 
He waits for the enemy he must greet 
With spitting flame from the gunner's seat; 
Ah ! that is a risk that brave men chance 
Over the battlefields of France. 

4( * « 4c ii: 

High in the air where the cloud banks lie 
I watch the daring man-birds fly. 
Silhouetted against the blue. 
Doing the things that the Eagles do! 

EYES IN THE AIR 

GILBERT FRANKAU 

Our guns are a league behind us, our target a mile below. 
And there's never a cloud to blind us from the haunts of 

our liurking foe — 
23 



336 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Sunk pit whence his shrapnel tore us, support-trench 

crest-concealed, 
As clear as the charts before us, his ramparts lie revealed. 
His panicked watchers spy us, a droning threat in the 

void ; 
Their whistling shells outfly us — puff upon puff, deployed 
Across the green beneath us, across the flanking grey. 
In fume and fire to sheathe us and balk us of our prey. 
Before, beyond, above her, 

Their iron web is spun ! 
Flicked but unsnared we hover, 
Edged planes against the sun : 
Eyes in the air above his lair. 
The hawks that guide the gun ! 

No word from earth may reach us, save, white against 

the ground, 
The strips outspread to teach us whose ears are deaf 

to sound: 
But down the winds that sear us, athwart our engine's 

shriek, 
We send — and know they hear us, the ranging guns we 

speak. 
Our visored eyeballs show us their answering pennant, 

broke 
Eight thousand feet below us, a whorl of flame-stabbed 

smoke — 
The burst that hangs to guide us, while numbed gloved 

fingers tap 
From wireless key beside us the circles of the map. 
Line — target — short or over — 

Come, plain as clock hands run, 
Words from the birds that hover, 



HYMN OF THE AIRMAN 337 

Unblinded, tail to sun ; 
Words out of air to range them fair, 
From hawks that guide the gun! 

Your flying shells have failed you, your landward guns 

are dumb: 
Since earth hath naught availed you, these skies be 

open ! Come, 
Where, wild to meet and n^ate you, flame in their beaks 

for breath, 
Black doves! the white hawks wait you on the wind- 
tossed boughs of death. 
These boughs be cold without you, our hearts are hot 

for this, 
Our wings shall beat about you, our scorching breath 

shall kiss; 
Till, fraught with that we gave you, fulfilled of our desire. 
You bank — too late to save you from biting beaks of 
fire — 

Timi sideways from your lover, 

Shudder and swerve and run. 

Tilt; stagger; and plunge over 

Ablaze against the sun: 
Doves dead in air, who clomb to dare 
The hawks that guide the gun ! 



HYMN OF THE AIRMAN IN THE HOUR 
OF BATTLE 

JAMES A. MACKERETH 

Up, and upward, soaring, soaring. 

Lift our battle to the skies ! 
In this world of light the roaring 

Of the temporal tumult dies. 



338 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Winged from time, we strive together; 

Past the wind's last wave we run, 
CHmbing up the gleaming weather 

Toward the radiance of the sun ! 

Swung afar, your guns have spoken: 

Little flecks of white between 
Lie like wool on blue unbroken 

O'er the earth — a»mist of green. 
Round and round, and sunward ever, 

You the lustrous, I the free. 
Lured to death by life's endeavor, 

Soaring 'mid immensity. 

Winged at length, the royal ranger 

Beats his passage through the skies ! 
Man from danger unto danger 

Fares beyondward, want on- wise. 
Seeks a goal through all betiding. 

Flings the void his fleeting breath, 
And with rapture riding, riding, 

Takes the starry way to death ! 

Earth beneath us, planets o'er us. 

Wheeling, wheeling out of view; 
Constellations speed in chorus 

As we circle, I and you. 
Lone 'mid grand creation's story. 

Through the vastness not a cry — 
Poised for battle in the glory, 

We are seraphs ere we die ! 

Past the toils of time our flight is ; 
In the proud ascent we plod. 



HYMN OF THE AIRMAN 339 

Where the heights' untainted light is 

Breathless in the gaze of God. 
Here our quarrel and our questing 

End — but nearer to the sun. 
Sternly at the last the testing 

Comes to all that man hath won. 

Brave men strove and died before us, 

But we strive in fields profound, 
Far above the star that bore us. 

In the vastness not a sound. 
Only here your shell-bursts under 

Spread and fall like fiery rain. 
With the gun-smoke's silver wonder 

Idle on an azure plain. 

Nearer to the sun, my f oemen ! 

I above, and you below. 
Swung o'er the abyss, where no men 

Venture, neither tempests blow, 
Silent Poising in the splendor. 

Passionate with mortal breath, 
Sweeps my soul, with no surrender, 

Down the deep to you — and death! 

Ruin-kissed, but gamesome ever. 

Proud we meet amid the blue : 
Who shall speed the world's endeavor 

Splendid f oemen, I or you? 
Here we crash : the great downcasting 

Waits. May weal us all betide! 
Buoyant with the Everlasting, 

Lords of death, we ride — we ride! 



340 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

THE DEAD AVIATOR 

BLANCHE M. KELLY 

He moves how slowly through the silent street, 
He that the dullard earth was wont to scorn, 

For pace with him on slow and leaden feet 

His fellows walk, and bow their heads and mourn , 

The wings are dipt at last that used to soar, 
And dark the eyes that would confront the sun. 

He leaps to greet the dayspring never more, 
And with the lark his last glad race is run. 

He fared amid the continents of space, 

Air's denizen, familiar, unafraid. 
He knew the clouds as girls their garden place. 

And with the vagrant winds his tryst was made. 

Earth was his death and not the fields of air; 

Let earth receive and hold his body fast. 
But his swift soul that made his body dare 

Slips from her grasp and has its will at last., 

Free of the body's shard he flies, he flies, 

Fleeter than thought and subtler than a breath. 

Unhindered now he seeks his native skies, 
Beyond the little tyranny of death. 

QUI VIVEf 

GRACE ELLERY CHANNING 

Qui vive ? Who passes by up there ? 
Who moves — what stirs in the startled air? 
What whispers, thrills, exults up there? 
''Qui vive r' 

"The Flags of France." 



QUI VIVE 341 

What wind on a windless night is this 
That breathes as Hght as a lover's kiss, 
That blows through the night with bugle notes, 
That streams like a pennant from a lance, 
That rustles, that floats ? 

"The Flags of France." 

What richly moves, what lightly stirs, 
Like a noble lady in a dance. 
When all men's eyes are in love with hers 
And needs must follow? 

"The Flags of France." 

What calls to the heart — and the heart has heard. 
Speaks, and the soul has obeyed the word, 
Summons, and all the years advance, 
And the world goes forward with France — with 

France ? 
Who called? 

"The Flags of France." 

What flies — a glory, through the night, 
While the legions stream — a line of light, 
And men fall to the left and fall to the right. 
But they fall not? 

"The Flags of France." 

"Qui vive?" Who comes? What approaches there? 
What soundless tumult, what breath in the air 
Takes the breath in the throat, the blood from the 

heart ? 
In a flame of dark, to the unheard beat 
Of an unseen drum and fleshless feet. 
Without glint of barrel or bayonets' glance, 



342 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

They approach — they; come. Who comes? (Hush! 

Hark!) 
"Qui vive?'* 

"The Flags of France." 

Uncover the head and kneel — kneel down, 

A monarch passes, without a crown. 

Let the proud tears fall but the heart beat high : 

The Greatest of All is passing by. 

On its endless march in the endless Plan : 

''Qui viveV 

"The Spirit of Man." 

" O Spirit of Man, pass on ! Advance ! " 
And they who lead, who hold the van? 
Kneel down ! 

The Flags of France ! 

THE NAME OF FRANCE ^ 

HENRY VAN DYKE 

Give us a name to fill the mind 
With the shining thoughts that lead mankind, 
The glory of learning, the joy of art, — 
A name that tells of a splendid part 
In the long, long toil and the strenuous fight 
Of the human race to win its way 
From the feudal darkness into the day 
Of Freedom, Brotherhood, Equal Right, — 
A name like a star, a name of light. 
I give you France! 

Give us a name to stir the blood 

With a warmer glow and a swifter flood, — 



From The Red Flower. Copyright, 191 7, by Charles Scribner's Sons. 



VIVE LA FRANCE! 343 

A name like 'the sound of a trumpet, clear, 
And silver-sweet, and iron strong, 
That calls three million men to their feet, 
Ready to march, and steady to meet 
The foes who threaten that name with wrong, — 
A name that rings like a battle-song. 
I give you France! 

Give us a name to move the heart 
With the strength that noble griefs impart, 
A name that speaks of the blood outpoured 
To save mankind from the sway of the sword, — 
A name that calls on the world to share 
In the burden of sacrificial strife 
Where the cause at stake is the world's free life 
And the rule of people everywhere, — 
A name like a vow, a name like a prayer. 
I give you France! 



VIVE LA FRANCE! 

RICHARD BUTLER GLAENZER 
"France is dying." — Hindenburg 
If France is dying, she dies as day 

In the splendour of noon, sun-aureoled. 
If France is dying, then youth is grey. 
And steel is soft and flame i^ cold. 

France cannot die! France cannot die! 

If France is dying, she dies as love 

When a mother dreams of her child-to-be. 

If France is dying, then God above 
Died with His Son upon the Tree. 
France cannot die! France cannot die! 



344 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

If France is dying, then manhood dies, 
Freedom and justice, all golden things. 

If France is dying, then life were wise 
To borrow of death such immortal wings. 
France cannot die! France cannot die! 

THE FATE OF FRANCE 

EDWIN MARKHAM 

As dawn's last dreams are vanishing from me, 
The thrush comes singing in the orchard tree. 
Then as I startle from the slumber road, 
The earth sweeps on me with her sorrow load — 
Over me crashes the sense of her vast mischance ; 
All hopes are hanging on the fate of France ! 

I rouse my soul : I plunge into the day : 
Bargain and barter in the usual way — 
Rip open letters pouring from the mail — 
Smile where I triumph, ponder where I fail. 
Yet all goes by me like a misty trance : 
All hopes are hanging on the fate of France ! 

When all floors murmur with departing feet, 
I lock the door and take the throbbing street. 
The great crowds thunder round me and depart ; 
But over it all I hear a cry in my heart 
That bodes the ruin of all the world's romance: 
All hopes are hanging on the fate of France ! 

And in the evening hush of home, I hear 
Beyond the Marne the marching heroes cheer : 
I see brave lines that waver and gain breath 
To hurl their valors into the front of death. 
» Their glad cry thrills me like a lifted lance : 
The whole world's future is the fate of France . 



THE GREEN ESTAMINET 345 

THE GREEN ESTAMINET 

A. P. H. 

Reprinted by permission of London Punch 

The old men sit by the chimney-piece and drink the good 
red wine 

And tell great tales of the Soixante-dix to the men from 
the English line, 

And Madame sits in her old armchair and sighs to her- 
self all day — 

So Madeleine serves the soldiers in the Green Estaminet. 

For Madame wishes the war was won and speaks of a 

strange disease, 
And Pierre is somewhere about Verdun, and Albert on 

the seas; 
Le Patron, 'e is Soldat, too, but long time prisonnier — 
So Madeleine serves the soldiers in the Green Estaminet. 

She creeps down-stairs when the black dawn scowls and 

helps at a neighbor's plow. 
She rakes the midden and feeds the fowls and milks the 

lonely cow. 
She mends the holes in the Padre's clothes and keeps 

his billet gay — 
And she also serves the soldiers in the Green Estaminet, 

The smoke grows thick and the wine flows free and the 

great round songs begin. 
And Madeleine sings in her heart, maybe, and welcomes 

the whole world in: 
But I know that life is a hard, hard thing and I know 

that her lips look gray. 
Though she smiles as she serves the soldiers in the Green 

Estaminet. 



346 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

But many a tired young English lad has learned his 
lesson there, 

To smile and sing when the world looks bad, "for, Mon- 
sieur, cest la guerre/' 

Has drunk her honor and made his vow to fight in the 
same good way 
20 That Madeleine serves the soldiers in the Green Estaminet. 

A big shell came on a windy night, and half of the old 
house went, 

But half of the old house stands upright, and Made- 
moiselle's content; 

The shells still fall in the Square sometimes, but Madeleine 
means to stay, 

So Madeleine serves the soldiers still in the Green Estaminet. 



EDITH CAVELL 

LAURENCE BINYON 

She was binding the wounds of her enemies when they 
came — 
The lint in her hand unrolled. 
They battered the door with their rifle-butts, crashed 
it in: 
She faced them gentle and bold. 

They haled her before the judges where they sat 

In their places, helmet on head. 
With question and menace the judges assailed her, " Yes, 

I have broken your law," she said. 

*I have tended the hurt and hidden the hunted, have 
done 
As a sister does to a brother, 



EDITH CAVELL 347 

•Because of a law that is greater than that you have 
made, 
Because I could do none other. 

" Deal as you will with me. This is my choice to the end, 

To live in the life I vowed." 
*'She is self-confessed," they cried; "she is self -con- 
demned. 

She shall die, that the rest may be cowed." 

In the terrible hour of the dawn, when the veins are 
cold. 
They led her forth to the wall. 
"I have loved my land," she said, "but it is not enough: 
Love requires of me all. 

"I will empty my heart of the bitterness, hating none." 
And sweetness filled her brave 
With a vision of understanding beyond the hour 
That knelled to the waiting grave. 

They bound her eyes, but she stood as if she shone. 

The rifles it was that shook 
When the hoarse command rang out. They could not 
endure 

That last, that defenceless look. 

And the officer strode and pistolled her surely, ashamed 

That men, seasoned in blood, 
Should quail at a woman, only a woman, — 

As a flower stamped in the mud. 

And now that the deed was securely done, in the night 

When none had known her fate. 
They answered those that had striven for her, day by 
day: 
"It is over, you come too late." 



348 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

And with msfny words and sorrowful-phrased excuse * 

Argued their German right 
To kill, most legally; hard though the duty be, 
10 The law must assert its might. 

Only a woman ! yet she had pity on them, 

The victim offered slain 
To the gods of fear that they worship. Leave them 
there. 

Red hands, to clutch their gain! 

45 She bewailed not herself, and we will bewail her not, 
But with tears of pride rejoice 
That an English soul was found so crystal-clear 
To be the triumphant voice 

Of the human heart that dares adventure all 
50 But live to itself untrue. 

And beyond all laws sees love as the light in the night, 
As the star it must answer to. 

The hurts she healed, the thousands comforted — these 
Make a fragrance of her fame. 
55 But because she stept to her star right on through death 
It is Victory speaks her name. 

JOAN OF ARC TO AN ENGLISH SISTER 
I. M. Edith Cavell, Nurse 
J. H. s. 
"Pitie que estoit au royaume de France." 

Pity had I for France my land 

In the days so far that be. 
Pity of heart and pity of hand — 
And who had pity on me ? 
5 England's daughter, led out to die 



KITCHENER'S MARCH 349 

For a deed of mercy and truth, 
Guerdon of helper thou hast as I 

From the men that have murdered ruth. 
Sister of Joan by the pity, the spite, 

Joy yet in the pain be thine : 
We have armed our folk with a quenchless 
might. 

Fire of thy bosom and mine. 

KITCHENER'S MARCH 

AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR 

Not the muffled drums for him. 
Nor the wailing of the fife — 
Trumpets blaring to the charge 
Were the music of his life. 
Let the music of his death 
Be the feet of marching men; 
Let his heart a thousandfold 
Take the field again. 

Of his patience, of his calm. 
Of his quiet faithfulness, 
England, raise your hero's cairn I 
He is worthy of no less. 
Stone by stone, in silence laid, 
Singly, surely, let it grow. 
He whose living was to serve. 
Would have had it so. 

There's a body drifting down 
For the mighty sea to keep. 
There's a spirit cannot die 
While a heart is left to leap 



350 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

In the land he gave his all, 
Steel alike to praise and hate. 
He has saved the life he spent, 
Death has struck too late. 

Not the muffled drums for him, 
Nor the wailing of the fife — 
Trumpets blaring to the charge 
Were the music of his life. 
Let the music of his death 
Be the feet of marching men! 
Let his heart a thousandfold 
Take the field again! 

"ALL THE HILLS AND VALES ALONG" 

CHARLES HAMILTON SORLEY 

All the hills and vales along 

Earth is bursting into song, 

And the singers are the chaps 

Who are going to die perhaps. 
O sing, marching men, 
'Till the valleys ring again, 
Give your gladness to earth's keeping, 
So be glad, when you are sleeping. 

Cast away regret and rue. 
Think what you are marching to. 
Little live, great pass» 
Jesus Christ and Barabbas 
Were found the same day. 
This died, that went his way. 

So sing with joyful breath. 

For why, you are going to death. 

Teeming earth will surely store 

All the gladness that you pour. 



A LARK ABOVE THE TRENCHES 351 

Earth that never doubts nor fears, 
Earth that knows of death, not tears. 
Earth that bore with joyful ease 
Hemlock for Socrates, 
Earth that blossomed and was glad 
'Neath the cross that Christ had. 
Shall rejoice and blossom too 
When the bullet reaches you. 

Wherefore, men marching 

On the road to death, sing! 

Pour your gladness on earth's head, 

So be merry, so be dead. 

From the hills and valleys earth 

Shouts back the sound of mirth. 

Tramp of feet and lilt of song 

Ringing all the road along. 

All the music of their going, 

Ringing, swinging, glad song-throwing, 

Earth will echo still, when foot 

Lies numb and voice mute. 
On, marching men, on 
To the gates of death with song. 
Sow your gladness for earth's reaping. 
So you may be glad, though sleeping. 
Strew your gladness on earth's bed. 
So be merry, so be dead. 

A LARK ABOVE THE TRENCHES 

JOHN WILLIAM STREETS 

Hushed is the shriek of hurtling shells : and hark ! 
Somewhere within that bit of deep blue sky. 
Grand in his loneliness, his ecstasy. 
His lyric wild and free, carols a lark. 
24 



352 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

I in the trench, he lost in heaven afar; 

I dream of love, its ecstasy he sings; 

Both lure my soul to love till, like a star, 

It flashes into life : O tireless wings 

That beat love's message into melody — 

A song that touches in the place remote 

Gladness supreme in its undying note. 

And stirs to life the soul of memory — 

'Tis strange that while you're beating into life 

Men here below are plunged in sanguine strife. 



A SOLDIER'S LITANY 

"RICHARD RALEIGH" 

When the foemen's hosts draw nigh, 
When the standards wave on high. 
When the brazen trumpets call, 
Some to triumph, some to fall. 
Lord of Hosts, we cry to Thee, 

* * Libera nos Domine ! ' ' 

When the opposing squadrons meet, 
When the bullets fall like sleet. 
When the vanguards forward dash. 
When the flames of cannon flash. 
Lord of Hosts, we cry to Thee, 

* * Libera nos Domine ! ' ' 

When mingled in the awful rout, 
Vanquished 's cries and victor's shout. 
Horses' screams and wounded's groan. 
Dying, comfortless, alone. 
Lord of Hosts, we cry to thee, 
' ' Libera nos Domine ! ' ' 



PRAYER OF A SOLDIER IN FRANCE 353 

And when night's shadows round us close, 
God of Battles, succor those, 
Those whose hearts shall ever bum 
For loved ones, never to return; 
Lord of Hosts, we cry to Thee, 
''Libera nos Domine!" 
(Save us, Lord.) 



PRAYER OF A SOLDIER IN FRANCE 

JOYCE KILMER 

My shoulders ache beneath my pack 
(Lie easier, Cross, upon His back). 

I march with feet that burn and smart 
(Tread, Holy Feet, upon my heart). 

Men shout at me who may not speak 

(They scourged Thy back and smote Thy cheek) , 

I may not lift a hand to clear 
My eyes of salty drops that sear. 

(Then shall my fickle soul forget 
Thy Agony of Bloody Sweat ?) 

My rifle hand is stiff and numb 

(From Thy pierced palm red rivers come) . 

Lord, Thou didst suffer more for me 
Than all the hosts of land and sea. 

So let me render back again 

This millionth of Thy gift. Amen. 



354 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

FACING THE SHADOWS ^ 

WILLIAM I. GRUNDISH 

When I behold the tense and tragic night 

Shrouding the earth in vague, symbohc gloom 
And when I think that, ere my fancy's flight 

Has reached the' portals of the inner room 
Where knightly ghosts, guarding the secret ark 

Of brave romance, through me shall sing again, 
Death may engulf me in eternal dark — 

Still I have no regret nor poignant pain. 

Better in one ecstatic, epic day 

To strike a blow for Glory and for Truth, 

With ardent, singing heart to toss away 
In Freedom's holy cause my eager youth. 

Than bear, as weary years pass one by one. 
The knowledge of a sacred task undone. 

A PRAYER FROM THE RANKS ^ 

JOHN FLETCHER HALL 

Silent, the snowy mountain-tops 

Keep watch through the starlit night; 
Safe in her valley the village sleeps, 

Wrapped in her mantle of white. 
Can this be France, of the cannon's roar 

And the shell-torn battle-field — 
France of a thousand thousand graves 

And war's grim harvest yield? 

In the gently swaying treetop there 
A withered leaf still clings; 



iReprinted by permission of The New York Herald. The poem won 
the prize in a contest conducted by the European edition of the Herald. 

sFrom Songs from the Trenches, copyright, 1918, by Harper & 
Brothers. 



DEATH AND THE FAIRIES 355 

And, venturous harbinger of spring, 

A lone little song-bird swings. 
Yet why are the young men seen no more, 

And why do the women wear black? 
Ask of that distant, muttering roar 

Which the hillsides echo back. 

Maker of Earth ! Can Thy children be blamed 

If they fling up their question to Thee, 
When the husbandman sleeps 'neath the soil he 
should till, 

Why such things as these things must be? 
Yet, lo! we have come a long, weary way 

To slay with the sword and be slain, 
Men's feet to restore to the pathways of peace. 

Though we never tread them again. 

Grant us this prayer: That the toll that we pay 

May not have been levied in vain; 
That when it is sheathed the sword of the world 

May never see sunlight again. 
When the roses shall climb o'er the crumbling 
trench 

And the guns are all silenced in rust. 
May War find a grave where no hand shall disturb, 

Through the ages, his moldering dust ! 



DEATH AND THE FAIRIES 

PATRICK MACGILL 

Before I joined the Army 

I lived in Donegal, 
Where every night the Fairies 

Would hold their carnival. 



356 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

But now I'm out in Flanders, 
Where men like wheat-ears fall, 

And it's Death and not the Fairies 
Who is holding carnival. 

I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS WITH DEATH 

ALAN SEEGER 

I have a rendezvous with Death 
At some disputed barricade, 
When Spring comes back with rustling shade 
And apple-blossoms fill the air — 
I have a rendezvous with Death 
When Spring brings back blue days and fair. 

It may be he shall take my hand 
And lead me into his dark land 
And close my eyes and quench my breath — 
It may be I shall pass him still. 
I have a rendezvous with Death 
On some scarred slope of battered hill, 
When Spring comes round again this year 
And the first meadow-flowers appear. 

God knows 'twere better to be deep 
Pillowed in silk and scented down. 
Where Love throbs out in blissful sleep, 
Pulse nigh to pulse, and breath to breath, 
Where hushed awakenings are dear . . . 
But I've a rendezvous with Death 
At midnight in some flaming town, 
Wlien Spring trips north again this year, 
And I to my pledged word am true, 
I shall not fail that rendezvous. 



1 From Poems hy Alan Seeger. Copyright, 1916, by Charles Scribner' 
Sons. 



ALAN SEEGER 357 

ALAN SEEGER 

GRANTLAND RICE 

Somewhere in France where crosses lean 

Above so many graves today; 
Where faded liHes place their screen 

And summer winds kneel down to pray — 
You who first ventured overseas 

To watch, at last, the light grow dim, 
God must have sent his gentlest breeze 

To bring your spirit back to Him. 

Somewhere in France, dust unto dust, 

You wait beyond the Inn of Life, 
Where through lone nights the guarding crust 

Shuts out the clamor of the strife ; 
But far above the crimson sod 

No barrier your soul might stop. 
When from the great white throne of God 

You see the Legion cross the top. 

A year ago today you knew 

The endless melody of song; 
You saw that summer skies were blue — 

That drifting summer days were long ; 
You waited, while the twilight's breath 

Came crooning some old serenade. 
To hold your "rendezvous with Death 

At some disputed barricade." 

Today the Legion holds the line 

Unbroken by the driving mass, 
Where you have helped to write the sign 
In dripping blood — "They Shall Not Pass!" 



358 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

And now beyond the far divide 
You see the starry flag advance 

Among the milHons who have died 
For love of Liberty— and France. 

The Eagle's wings at last are spread 
Above a never-beaten shield, 

Where still among the deathless dead 
Your specter haunts the clotted field ; 

And borne afar on summer's breath 

- You send this message hurtling through 
"I had a rendezvous with Death — 
I did not fail that rendezvous!" 



FROM HOME 

E. A. MACKINTOSH 

The pale sun woke in the eastern sky 
And a veil of mist was drawn 
Over the faces of death and fame 
When you went up in the dawn ; 
With never a thought of fame or death, 
Only the work to do, 
When you went over the top, my friends, 
And I not there with you. 

The veil is rent with a rifle-flash 

And shows me, plain to see. 

Battle and bodies of men that lived 

And fought along with me. 

O God ! it would not have been so hard 

If I 'd been in it too. 

But you are lying still, my friends, 

And I not there with you. 



THE SOLDIER 359 

So here I sit in a pleasant room 

By a comfortable fire, 

With everything that a man could want, 

But not the heart's desire. 20 

So I sit thinking and dreaming still, 

A dream that won't come true. 

Of you in the German trench, my friends, 

And I not there with you. 

THE SOLDIER 

RUPERT BROOKE 

If I should die, think only this of me: 

That there's some corner of a foreign* field 
That is for ever England. There shall be 

In that rich earth a richer dust concealed; 
A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware, s 

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her w^ays to roam, 
A body of England's, breathing English air, 

Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home. 

And think, this heart, all evil shed away, 

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less 10 

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England 
given; 
Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; 
And laughter, learnt of friends ; and gentleness, 
In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. 

THE VOLUNTEER 

HERBERT ASQUITH 

Here lies a clerk who half his life had spent 
Toiling at ledgers in a city gre}^ 
Thinking that so his days would drift away 
With no lance broken in life's tournament : 



36o THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Yet ever 'twixt the books and his bright eyes 
The gleaming eagles of the legions came, 
And horsemen, charging under phantom skies. 
Went thundering past beneath the oriflamme. 

And now those waiting dreams are satisfied ; 
From twilight into spacious dawn he went ; 
His lance is broken; but he lies content 
With that high hour, in which he lived and died. 
And falling thus he wants no recompense, 
Who found his battle in the last resort ; 
Nor needs he any hearse to bear him hence, 
Who goes to join the men of Agincourt. 

IN FLANDERS FIELDS^ 

JOHN MCCRAE 

In Flanders fields the poppies blow 
Between the crosses, row on row. 
That mark our place ; and in the sky 
The larks, still bravely singing, fly, 
Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the dead; short days ago 
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 
Loved and were loved, and now we lie 
In Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe ! 
To you from failing hands we throw 

The torch ; be yours to hold it high ! 

If ye break faith with us who die 
We shall not sleep, though poppies blow 
In Flanders fields. 



iFrom In Flanders Fields and Other Poems by John McCrae. Copy- 
right, 1918, by G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



THE STAR-SHELL 361 

THE STAR-SHELL 
(Loos) 

PATRICK MACGILL 

A star-shell holds the sky beyond 
Shell-shivered Loos, and drops 
In million sparkles on a pond 
That lies by Hulluch copse. ^ 

A moment's brightness in the sky, 
To vanish at a breath, 
And die away, as soldiers die 
Upon the wastes of death. 

RELEASE 

W.. N. HODGSON 

(Composed while marching to rest-camp after severe 
fighting at Loos) 

A leaping wind from England, 

The skies without a stain, 
Clean cut against the morning 

Slim poplars after rain, 
The foolish noise of sparrows 

And starlings in a wood — 
After the grime of battle 

We know that these are good. 

Death whining down from heaven. 

Death roaring from the ground, 
Death stinking in the nostril, 

Death shrill in every sound, 
Doubting we charged and conquered — 

Hopeless we struck and stood ; 
Now when the fight is ended 

We know that it was good. 



.^62 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

We that have seen the strongest 

Cry Hke a beaten child, 
The sanest eyes unholy, 

The cleanest hands defiled. 
We that have known the heart-blood 

Less than the lees of wine. 
We that have seen men broken. 

We know man is divine. 

THE FALLEN SUBALTERN 

HERBERT ASQUITH 

The starshells float above, the bayonets glisten; 
We bear our fallen friend without a sound ; 
Below the waiting legions lie and listen 
To us, who march upon their burial-ground. 

Wound in the flag of England, here we lay him; 
The guns will flash and thunder o'er the grave; 
What other winding sheet should now array him. 
What other music should salute the brave ? 

As goes the Sun-god in his chariot glorious. 
When all his golden banners are unfurled, 
So goes the soldier, fallen but victorious. 
And leaves behind a twilight in the world. 

And those who come this way, in days hereafter. 
Will know that here a boy for England fell, 
Who looked at danger with the eyes of laughter. 
And on the charge his days were ended well. 

One last salute ; the bayonets clash and glisten ; 
With arms reversed we go without a sound : 
One more has joined the men who lie and listen 
To us, who march upon their burial-ground. 



"BUT A SHORT TIME TO LIVE" 363 

"—BUT A SHORT TIME TO LIVE" 

LESLIE COULSON 

Our little hour, — how swift it flies 

When poppies flare and lilies smile; 
How soon the fleeting minute dies, 

Leaving us but a little while 
To dream our dream, to sing our song, 

To pick the fruit, to pluck the flower. 
The Gods — they do not give us long, — 

One Httle hour. 

Our little hour, — how short it is 

When Love with dew-eyed loveliness 
Raises her lips for ours to kiss 

And dies within our first caress. 
Youth flickers out like wind-blown flame. 

Sweets of to-day to-morrow sour, 
For Time and Death, relentless, claim 

Our little hour. 

Our little hour, — how short a time 

To wage our wars, to fan our hates, 
To take our fill of armoured crime. 

To troop our banners, storm the gates. 
Blood on the sword, our eyes blood-red, 

Blind in our puny reign of power. 
Do we forget how soon is sped 

Our little hour? 

Our little hour, — how soon it dies: 

How short a time to tell our beads, 
To chant our feeble Litanies, 

To think sweet thoughts, to do good deeds. 



364 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

The altar lights grow pale and dim, 
The bells hang silent in the tower — 

So passes with the dying hymn 
Our little hour. 



THE RED CROSS BLOKE 

(The following poem was found among the effects of a badly- 
wounded British soldier.) 

Not a blinkin' rap do we care for the chap 

With a Red Cross on his sleeve, 
Till we get to the front, on the stand to shunt, 

An' a farewell bomb when you leave. 

Midst that flying death you hold your breath, 

An' Hfe seems suddenly dear, 
While the Red Cross Chap is out of the scrap, 

In the safest part of the rear. 

It does n't seem fair for him to be there, 
While we face the powder and smoke, 

An' check the Huns with red-hot guns. 
An' cheer and curse and choke. 

But many a lad feels thundering glad. 
When the night lends a sheltering cloak. 

To be overhauled by the chap he's called 
The bloomin' Red Cross Bloke. 

My own turn came — it's part of the game — 

In a scrap we had before Loos, 
When the blinkin' Huns tried to pinch the guns 

Of the 15th — never mind whose. 

They tried and tried, and you bet they died, 
While we lost many a chum, 



THE RED CROSS BLOKE 365 

When the message came through: " Now lads, stand to, " 
And the next was, "Here they come!" 

We charged and yelled, an' the line we held, 

But I don't remember the rest, 
For the earth spun round, and I hit the ground, 

With daylight inside my chest. 

When next I woke a Red Cross Bloke 

Was crossing that zone of death; 
An' I watched him come through that shrapnel hum — 

Just watched and held my breath. 

He reached my side with a crawl s,nd glide, 

An' I blessed his crimson crest. 
When he'd made me snug with a comfy plug 

In the painful hole in my chest. 

Then away he crept, and I must have slept, 

But when I awoke with pain, 
I was down at the base as a hospital case, 

An' booked down for "Blighty" again. 

We landed all right on a wet stormy night. 

But what did we care for the rain. 
For a Red Cross Bloke fixed me up with a smoke 

An' a crib on a Red Cross train. 

So that's why I'm here, feeling shaky and queer. 

In this clinkin' Red Cross bed. 
With a Red Cross nurse, when I'm feeling worse 

To lay cool things on my head. 

An' though it all seems to be part of my dreams, 

Yet I know it is not all a hoax. 
There are thousands to-day who are ready to say, 
"Thank God for the Red Cross Blokes!" 



366 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

DEATH SONG OF THE NINTH LANCERS 

J. LAURENCE RENTOUL 

O soldier lads and tars, 

It makes you hold your breath — 

The Lancers and Hussars 
Rode singing on to death ! 

Britain, my Mother, beyond the sea, 

They sang for home, and they died for thee ! 

Like schoolboys loosed for play 
(You read and hold your breath !) 

The fighters all the way 
Sang as they rode to death. 

Mother, the tears are upon your face 

For the gallant dead and the pride of race ! 

Balked by the meshed barb- wire, 

'Cross all the snarling guns 
And through the red hell-fire 

They rode, my Britain's sons! 
Mother, proud Mother, beyond the sea, 
They smote for us all, and they died for thee ! 

And few came back, that day. 

Shell-scathed and scant of breath ; 

But still the song shall say 
How England faces death ! 

Mother, strong Mother, beyond the sea. 

Call to thy sons, and they die for thee. 

IN THE MORNING 

(Loos, 19 1 5) 

PATRICK MACGILL 

The firefly haunts were lighted yet, 
As we scaled the top of the parapet ; 



IN THE MORNING 367 

But the east grew pale to another fire, 
As our bayonets gleamed by the foeman's wire; 
And the sky was tinged with gold and grey, 
And under our feet the dead men lay, - . 

Stiff by the loop-holed barricade ; 
Food of the bomb and hand-grenade ; 
Still in the slushy pool and mud — 
Ah, the path we came was a path of blood, 
When we went to Loos in the morning. 

A little grey church at the foot of the hill. 
With powdered glass on the window-sill — 
The shell-scarred stone and the broken tile 
Littered the chancel, nave and aisle — 
Broken the altar and smashed the pyx, 
And the rubble covered the crucifix; 
This we saw when the charge was done. 
And the gas-clouds paled in the rising sun, 
As we entered Loos in the morning. 

The dead men lay on the shell-scarred plain, 

Where Death and the Autumn held their reign— 

Like banded ghosts in the heavens grey 

The smoke of the powder paled away ; 

Where riven and rent the spinney trees 

Shivered and shook in the sullen breeze. 

And there, where the trench through the graveyard 

wound. 
The dead men's bones stuck over the ground 

By the road to Loos in the morning. 

The turret towers that stood in the air, 
Sheltered a foeman sniper there — 
They found, who fell to the sniper's aim, 
A field of death on the field of fame; 

25 



368 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

And stiff in khaki the boys were laid 
To the sniper's toll at the barricade, 
But the quick went clattering through the tov/n, 
Shot at the sniper and brought him down, 
As we entered Loos in the morning. 

The dead men lay on the cellar stair, 
Toll of the bomb that found them there.- 
In the street men fell as the bullock drops, 
Sniped from the fringe of Hulluch copse. 
And the choking fumes of the deadly shell 
Curtained the place where our comrades fell. 
This we saw when the charge was done, 
And the east blushed red to the rising sun 
In the town of Loos in the morning. 



' COURAGE 

DYNELEY HUSSEY 

Alone amid the battle-din untouched 

Stands out one figure beautiful, serene; 
No grime of smoke nor reeking blood hath smutched 

The virgin brow of this unconquered queen. 
She is the Joy of Courage vanquishing 

The unstilled tremors of the fearful heart ; 
And it is she that bids the poets sing. 

And gives to each the strength to bear his part. 

Her eye shall not be dimmed, but as a flame 
Shall light the distant ages with its fire. 

That men may know the glory of her name. 
That purified our souls of fear's desire. 

And she doth calm our sorrows, soothe our pain, 

And she shall lead us back to peace again. 



BEFORE ACTION 369 

BEFORE ACTION 

W. N. HODGSON 

By all the glories of the day, 
And the cool evening's benison : 
By the last sunset touch that lay 
Upon the hills when day was done ; 
By beauty lavishly outpoured, 
And blessings carelessly received. 
By all the days that I have lived, 
Make me a soldier. Lord. 

By all of all men's hopes and fears, 
And all the wonders poets sing, 
The laughter of unclouded years, 
And every sad and lovely thing : 
By the romantic ages stored 
With high endeavor that was his, 
By all his mad catastrophes. 
Make me a man, O Lord. 

I, that on my familiar hill 
Saw with uncomprehending eyes 
A hundred of Thy sunsets spill 
Their fresh and sanguine sacrifice, 
Ere the sun swings his noonday sword 
Must say good-bye to all of this : — 
By all delights that I shall miss, 
Help me to die, O Lord. 

INTO BATTLE 

Flanders, 19 15 

JULIAN H. F. GRENFELL 

The naked earth is warm with Spring, 
And with green grass and bursting trees 



370 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Leans to the sun's gaze glorying, 
And quivers in the sunny breeze ; 

And Life is Colour and Warmth and Light, 
And a striving evermore for these ; 

And he is dead who will not fight ; 
And who dies fighting has increase. 

The fighting man shall from the sun 

Take warmth, and life from the glowing earth 

Speed with the light-foot winds to run, 
And with the trees to newer birth ; 

And find, when fighting shall be done. 
Great rest, and fulness after dearth. 

All the bright company of Heaven 
Hold him in their high comradeship. 

The Dog Star, and the Sisters Seven, 
Orion's Belt and sworded hip. 

The woodland trees that stand together, 
They stand to him each one a friend; 

They gently speak in the windy weather; 
They guide to valley and ridges' end. 

The kestrel hovering by day , 

And the little owls that call by night, 

Bid him be swift and keen as they, 
As keen of ear, as swift of sight. 

The blackbird sings to him, "Brother, brother. 

If this be the last song you shall sing, 
Sing well, for you may not sing another; 

Brother, sing." 

In dreary doubtful waiting hours, 
Before the brazen frenzy starts. 



ROUGE BOUQUET 

The horses show him nobler powers ; 
O patient eyes, courageous hearts ! 

And when the burning moment breaks, 
And all things else are out of mind, 

And only joy of battle takes 

Him. by the throat, and makes him blind. 

Through joy and blindness he shall know, 
Not caring much to know, that still 

Nor lead nor steel shall reach him, so 
That it be not the Destined Will. 

The thundering line of battle stands, 
And in the air Death moans and sings; 

But Day shall clasp him with strong hands, 
And Night shall fold him in soft wings. 

ROUGE BOUQUET 

JOYCE KILMER 

In a wood they call the Rouge Bouquet 
There is a new-made grave today. 
Built by never a spade nor pick 
Yet covered with earth ten meters thick. 
There lie many fighting men. 

Dead in their youthful prime. 
Never to laugh nor love again 

Nor taste the Summertime. 
For Death came flying through the air 
And stopt his flight at the dugout stair, 
Touched his prey and left them there. 

Clay to clay. 
He hid their bodies stealthily 
In the soil of the land they fought to free 

And fled away. 



37 



372 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Now over the grave, abrupt and clear 

Three volleys ring; 
And perhaps their brave young spirits hear 

The bugle sing : 
"Go to sleep! 
Go to sleep ! 

Slumber well where the shell screamed and fell. 
Let your rifles rest on the muddy floor, 
You will not need them any more. 
Danger's past; 
Now at last, 
Go to sleep!" 

There is on earth no worthier grave 
To hold the bodies of the brave 
Than this place of pain and pride 
Where they nobly fought and nobly died. 
Never fear but in the skies 

Saints and angels stand 
Smihng with their holy eyes 

On this new-come band. 
St. Michael's sword darts through the air 
And touches the aureole on his hair 
As he sees them stand saluting there, 

His stalwart sons ; 
And Patrick, Brigid, Columkill 
Rejoice that in veins of warriors still 

The Gael's blood runs. 
And up to Heaven's doorway floats, 

From the wood called Rouge Bouquet, 
A delicate cloud of bugle notes 

That softly say : 
"Farewell! 
Farewell ! 



"THIS IS THE LAST" 373 

Comrades true, born anew, peace to you! 

Your souls shall be where the heroes are 

And your memory shine like the morning star. 

Brave and dear. 

Shield us here. 

Farewell!" 



"THIS IS THE LAST" 

GILBERT WATERHOUSE 

Coming in splendor thro' the golden gate 
Of all the days, swift passing, one by one, 
Oh, silent planet, thou hast gazed upon 
How many harvestings, dispassionate? 
Across the many-furrowed fields of Fate, 
Wrapt in the miantle of oblivion, 
The old, gray, wrinkled Husbandman has gone, 
Sowing and reaping, lone and desolate — 
The blare of trumpets, rattle of the drum, 
Disturb him not at all — He sees. 
Between the hedges of the centuries, 
A thousand phantom armies go and come, 
While reason whispers as each marches past, 
'This is the last of wars, — this is the last!" 



THE ANXIOUS DEAD^ 

JOHN MCCRAE 

O guns, fall silent till the dead men hear 
Above their heads the legions pressing on; 

(These fought their fight in time of bitter fear 
And died not knowing how the day had gone) 



iProm In Flanders Fields and Other Poems by John McCrae. 
Copyright, 1918, by G. P. Putnam's Sons. 



374 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

O flashing muzzles, pause and let them see 
The coming dawn that streaks the sky afar ; 

Then let your mighty chorus witness be 

To them, and Caesar, that we still make war. 

Tell them, O guns, that we have heard their call. 
That we have sworn, and will not turn aside. 

That we will onward till we win or fall, 
That we will keep the faith for which they died. 

Bid them be patient, and some day, anon. 
They shall feel earth enwrapt in silence deep, 

Shall greet in wonderment the quiet dawn, 
And in content may turn them to their sleep. 



PART V 

SOME IDEALS OF DEMOCRACY IN 
STORIES AND SKETCHES 



The golden hopes of mankind can he 
realized only by men who have iron in 
their blood; by men who scorn to do wrong 
and equally scorn to submit to wrong; by 
men of gentle souls whose hearts are harder 
than steel in their readiness to war against 
brutality and evil. 

— Theodore Roosevelt 



PART V 
INTRODUCTORY 

The unity of the present with the past has been one of the 
most prominent ideas in the Hterature of the war. The 
patriotic figures in our history have Hved again as we 
have fancied their interest in and approval of our stand. 
Particularly, we have chosen to invoke the great name 
of Washington. Around him, it is clear, Mr. Rhodes 
has woven his delicate and suggestive story of "Extra 
Men. " And it seems quite natural that to dear old Mrs. 
Buchan, last proud member of a proud family (for George 
is of the newer democracy) some member of which was 
always in the armies of the Republic, the shadowy figures 
of our heroic past should appeal for directions as they 
hasten to join the first of the sailing transports. No 
doubt she has been made especially sensitive to such 
presences by the fact that her grandson, the only one 
left of the Buchan name besides herself, is to sail on one 
of those first ships. The story reflects the great back- 
ground of American participation in the war, love of 
liberty, the desire to be worthy of our past, the unity of 
all sections in a common purpose, the uncomplaining 
acceptance of sacrifice, long-brought friendship for France, 
and assurance of the triumph of the right. 

Civilians have had great difficulty in actually pictur- 
ing for themselves the activities at the front, because the 
conditions surrounding the fighting men were so different 
from the old romantic conceptions of war. The official 
reports were in cold, unimaginative language. Here 
was a great opportunity for a writer with sufficient 

377 



378 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

power and adequate experience to translate these reports 
into vivid, concrete language. At least one such writer 
has appeared in the person of Boyd Cable, who had done 
all sorts of things in all sorts of places before the war and 
who, coming with the Australians, served in various posi- 
tions at the front. His favorite method is to take a color- 
less passage from an official despatch and by means of a 
realistic sketch make us see just what was going on. 
This "reading between the lines" suggested the title, 
"Between the Lines," for the first of his several books. 
From this book we have chosen the story called "A 
Hymn of Hate," which illustrates the line in the report, 
"The troops continue in excellent spirits." It tells the 
experience of a dyed-in-the-wool cockney battalion while 
occupying a portion of a forward trench. The fact that 
the Tower Bridge Rifles were "Enghsh to the backbone" 
adds tremendously to the humor of their success in getting 
the tune and singing back at the Germans that egregious 
expression of hate toward England, Ernst Lissauer's 
"Hymn of Hate," which was so prominent in the earlier 
days of the war.- The crude "ragging" jokings and 
retorts in cockney dialect and German brogue seem very 
real, coming as they do from the very real characters who 
take the lead in them. "This story, " says one enthusias- 
tic critic, "filled our hearts with great glee. It is and 
it is n't a war-story. There is hardly any fighting in 
it, no heroics, no pathos, no sentiment. Yet it actually 
smells of the trenches and gives one an inside view of 
soldier life and psychology that takes the sting out of 
the conflict, in a measure, and gives a new association 
of ideas." 

An English brigadier was greatly amused and a French 
staff officer equally astonished at the singing antics of 
the Tower Bridge Rifles as they "tramped along the road 



INTRODUCTORY 379 

towards 'reserv^e billets.'" Farther back some of the 
soldier's most pleasant memories are particularly of those 
weeks spent in the rest billets in the background of the 
theater of war. One of the most vivid accounts of such 
a memory is that quoted from Major Ian Hay. It is, 
he says, "an average billet as most of us recollect it." 
The arrangements for the comfort of the members of the 
battalion are made clear and we are thoroughly intro- 
duced to the members of the family. We are quite will- 
ing to agree when he characterizes Madame as "one of 
the most wonderful women in the world." She is made 
intensely human to us by the * ' only approach to a break- 
down ' ' in her cheerfully energetic attitude when reference 
is made to her husband and eldest son, "fighting, she 
knows not where, amid dangers and privations which can 
only be imagined." She is "the finest exponent, in all 
this war, of the art of carrying on!" It is interesting, in 
the light of more recent events, to know that Major Hay's 
account was written at the time when in the early cam- 
paign of 1918 the Germans seemed to be on the point of 
breaking the allied lines. It was hard for the world to 
feel the same confidence that "a mile or two of territory 
more or less matters little. " Now, the quietly expressed 
hope that it was the enemy's "final convulsion" seems 
little less than prophecy. 

Americans at home were thrilled with enthusiastic 
pride at the news of the safe arrival in France of the 
early convoys that carried our soldiers across the seas. 
How much more thrilling it must have been to Americans 
already in France who could witness that coming and 
vicariously take to themselves, as Americans, some part 
of that wonderful welcome. "They Have Come for the 
Sake of France" has been. chosen as an excellent picture 
of that coming. The introduction of several individual 



38o THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

characters and the telHng of individual incidents con- 
nected with the arrival make it seem as real as if we 
were observers also. 

The basic element in American character is typified 
for us in the sketch called "The American Pioneer," 
an address delivered by Secretary Lane at the opening of 
the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco, Feb- 
ruary 20, 191 5. Among all the symbolic work of the 
sculptors on the buildings and grounds of the exposition 
Mr. Lane finds the real significance of the whole enter- 
prise in one of the least conspicuous figures representing 
the pioneer. This pioneer made America what is it and 
"in his house will be taught the gospel of an advancing 
democracy — strong, valiant, confident, conquering." It 
is worth while to keep before our minds the spirit of that 
figure and to realize that our success as individuals and 
as a nation will depend on our willingness and ability to 
come to grasp with great realities. Mr. Lane has that 
most valuable of all qualities in a speaker, the power of 
"getting his meaning over. " This selection is a very fine 
example of that power. 

A very remarkable instance of the myth-making power 
of the great war is found in the story of "The Bowmen. " 
While a pure work of fancy on the part of its author, the 
story at once took root in the imaginations of people 
unable to grasp the bigness and horror of the sudden 
conflict. It was copied far and wide as a real explana- 
tion of the success of the heroic resistance offered by the 
English in the famous retreat from Mons in the fall of 
19 1 4. Just as the sailing of our troops for France called 
Washington and the heroes of the past to be their com- 
panions as told in "Extra Men," so the bowmen of 
Agincourt come to the assistance of the "Old Contempt- 
ibles" in their need. It is not surprising that it should 



INTRODUCTORY 381 

be so. Always the human mind hunts for a super- 
natural explanation of whatever is beyond its grasp. 

A favorite dictum of our democracy is that it allows 
no limitations of birth or circumstance to hold one down 
from achieving whatever possibilities are in one's nature. 
And in that respect those who have already arrived have 
no natural advantage over those who are on the way. 
In "Yokels" these points of view are humorously set 
forth in the conversation of three men, during which it 
develops that a large group of men prominent in the 
nation's life at present were all born in small towns, and 
that that fact was equally true of prominent public men 
in the past. And the third man, who proves the point, is 
obliged to admit "rather sheepishly" that he is a yokel, 
a "country bumpkin," since he comes from Brooklyn! 

A splendid picture of instinctive, apparently uncon- 
scious — at least not self-conscious — reverence for the 
flag is "The Man with His Hat in His Hand." He 
represents the great solid heart of the folk. He has 
come down from the mountains, "a soul as rugged but 
as placid as the great blue mountains which gave it birth," 
to say farewell to an only son. In such as he, the speaker 
sees the nation's reserve strength which "shall save the 
Republic when the drum tap is futile and the barracks 
are exhausted. " 

The story " Americanus Sum" presents in striking form 
the extension of the American doctrine of opportunity 
to all who come. We are allowed to hear of what hap- 
pened indirectly from the Italian end of the story. A 
disappointing eldest son has found his opportunity in his 
new land, and the fault-finding father in the old home 
is at last driven to change his opinions of America. 
While still holding that America has no pictures, no 
music, no great statuary, he is obliged to admit that it has 



382 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

made a man out of his son and that that is "the grandest, 
the noblest art. " As Americans, we wish to beheve that 
this is really what America means to the worthy immi- 
grant. By a humorous aside or two in the course of the 
story some of our national shortcomings are suggested so 
that we may not too much vaunt ourselves. 

"The Soldier Who Conquered Sleep" is a good example 
of the finer French short stories inspired by the war. It 
has the simplicity of structure and the perfect unity of 
impression characteristic of the type. The account of 
an advance in the face of a curtain of fire is the basis of 
the story. The affectionate relationship of officer and 
subordinate which we are told is so characteristic of the 
French army is strikingly set forth. The modesty of 
the young sergeant wearing his Croix de Guerre is most 
winning. The recognition of his bravery by the captain 
was most generous and fully deserved. The psychology 
of the incident is clearly set forth, so that we feel that one 
more of the chambers of horrors that constitute war has 
been opened for us. 

Our final selection is a vivid sketch of a night scene 
in war time. From the top of a dune just over the line 
in Holland, the observer looks southward over the sleeping 
plain of Flanders, with its "cities of ancient glory and 
fame," full of memories of the "great leaders of a great 
race." In the midst of the weird setting the eternal 
spirit of the land, hated of the Germans, passes overhead 
through the storm. Our attention is directed not only 
to the fact that the spirit of a nation cannot be destroyed, 
but also to the marvelous way in which a piece of folk 
literature may become the embodiment of that spirit. 



EXTRA MENi 

HARRISON RHODES 

The pretty, peaceful Jersey farm-land slopes gently 
up from the Delaware River to the little hill which Prince- 
ton crowns. It is uneventful country. The railway does 
not cross it, nor any of the great motor trunk roads. 
On the river itself there is no town of considerable size, 
though on the map you read the quaint name of Wash- 
ington Crossing for a little hamlet of a few houses. This 
will remind you of the great days when on these sleepy 
fields great history was made. But the fields have lain 
quiet in the sun now for more than a century, and even 
the legends of Revolutionary days are for the most part 
forgotten along these country roads. 

As for modern legends, the very phrase seems proof 
of their impossibility. And in spite of her spacious and 
resounding past. New Jersey's name now seems to mean 
incorporations and mosquitoes and sea-bathing and pop- 
corn-crisp rather than either legend or romance. But 
with the coming of the Great War strange things are 
stirring in the world, and in the farthest corners of the 
land the earth is shaken by the trarop of new armies. 
In the skies by day and night there is a sign. And the 
things one does not believe can happen may be happening, 
even in New Jersey. 

The small events on the Burridge Road which are here 
set down cannot even be authenticated. There are 
people down by the river who say they saw a single horse- 
man go through the village at dusk, but not one seems to 
know which way he came. There is no ferry at Wash- 
ington Crossing and the bridge at Lambertville had, since 

^Copyright by Harrison Rhodes. All rights reserved. 
26 383 



3S4 THE WORLD AXD DEMOCRACY 

three that afternoon, been closed for repairs. \\Tiat facts 
are set do^^~n here — and indeed they are scarce!}^ facts — 
were acquired because a chauffeur missed the road and a 
motor then broke down. ^Miat story there is — and 
indeed there is perhaps not much story — has been pieced 
together from fragments collected that afternoon and 
evening. And if the chronicle as now \mtten is vague, 
it can be urged that, though it all happened so recently 
as last year, it is already as indeterminate and misty as 
a legend. 

We may, however, begin with imdisputed facts. ^A^len 
her grandson enlisted for the war old ^Irs. Buchan 
became very genuinely dependent on the little farm that 
surrounded the lovely old colonial house on the Burridge 
Road. (Meadows, and horses, and hay and the quality 
and price of it, have much to do vdth our story — as, 
indeed, befits a rural chronicle.) The fann had been 
larger once, and the hospitality which the old house could 
dispense more la\dsh. Indeed, the chief anecdote in 
its history had been the stopping there once of Wash- 
ington, to dine and rest on his way to join the army in 
New York. Old ^Irs. Buchan. who. for all her gentle- 
ness, was incurably proud, laid special stress on the fact 
that on that night the great man had not been at an inn — 
which was in the twentieth century to cheapen his 
memory by a sign-board appeal to automobile parties — 
but at a gentleman's house. A gentleman's house it 
still was; somehow the Buchans had always managed 
to live like gentlemen. But if George, the gay, agreeable 
last one of them, could also live that way, it was because 
liis grandmother practiced rigid heart-breaking economy. 
The stories of her shifts and expedients were almost 
fables of the country-side. When George came home — he 
had a small position in a New York broker's office — 



EXTRA MEN 385 

there was gaiety and plenty. He might well have been 
deceived into thinking that the little he sent home from es 
New York was ample for her needs. But when he went 
back his grandmother lived on nothing, or less than that. 
She dressed for dinner, so they said, in black silk and 
old lace, had the table laid with Lowestoft china and the 
Buchan silver, and ate a dish of corn-meal mush, or some- 70 
thing cheaper if that could be found! 

George Buchan's enlistment — it was in the aviation 
service — had been early. And very early he was ordered 
to France to finish his training there. Two days before 
he expected his ship to sail the boy got a few hours' fur- 75 
lough and came to the Burridge Road to say good-by to 
his grandmother. 

What was said v/e must imagine. He was all the old 
lady had left in the world. But no one ever doubted 
that she had kissed him and told him to go, and to hold so 
his head high as suited an American and a Buchan. 
Georgie would perhaps have had no very famous career 
in Wall Street, but no one doubted that he would make a 
good soldier. There had always been a Buchan in the 
armies of the Republic, his grandmother must have ss 
reminded him. And very likely Georgie, kissing her, 
had reminded her that there had always been a Buchan 
woman at home to wish the men Godspeed as they 
marched away, and told her too to hold her old head high. 

There must have been some talk about the money that 90 
there wouldn't be now; without his Httle weekly check 
she was indeed almost penniless. It is quite likely that 
they spoke of selling the house and decided against it. 
Part of the boy's pay was of course to come to his grand- 
mother, but, as she explained, there were so many war 95 
charities needing that, and then the wool for her knitting 
— she must manage mostly with the farm. There was 



386 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

always the vegetable-garden, and a few chickens, and the 
green meadow, which might be expected to yield a record 

100 crop of hay. 

We may imagine that the two — old lady and boy — 

. stepped out for a moment into the moonlit night to look 
at the poor little domain of Buchan that was left. Under 
the little breeze that drifted up from the Delaware the 

105 grass bent in long waves like ..those of the summer seas 
•that Georgie was to cross to France. As the Buchans 
looked at it they might have felt some wonder at the 
century-old fertihty of the soil. Back in the days of the 
Revolution Washington's horse had pastured there one 

110 night. Then, and in 1812, and during the great battle 
of the States, the grass had grown green and the hay 
been fragrant, and the fat Jersey earth had out of its 
depths brought forth something to help the nation at 
war. Such a field as that by the old white house can 

115 scarcely be thought of as a wild, primeval thing; it has 
lived too long under the hand of man. This was a 
Buchan field, George's meadow, and by moonlight it 
seemed to wave good-by to him. 

"You are n't dependent on me now, dear, " he may have 

120 said, with his arm around his grandmother. " I just leave 
you to our little garden patch and our chickens and the 
green meadow." 

"You must n't worry, dear. They'll take care of me," 
she must have answered. 

125 So George went away; and the night after, the night 
before he sailed, the horseman and his company came. 

It was at dusk, and a gossamer silvery mist had drifted 

up from the Delaware. He had hitched his horse by the 

gate. He was in riding-breeches and gaiters and a rather 

130 old-fashioned riding-coat. And in the band of his hat 



EXTRA MEN 387 • 

he had stuck a small American flag which looked oddly 
enough almost like a cockade. He knocked at the door, 
quite ignoring the new electric bell which George had 
installed one idle Sunday morning when his grandmother 
had felt he should have been at church. As it happened, 135 
old Mrs. Buchan had been standing by the window, watch- 
ing the mist creep up and the twilight come, thinking of 
Georgie so soon to be upon the water. As the horsem.an 
knocked she, quite suddenly and quite contrary to her 
usual custom, went herself to the door. no 

His hat was immediately off, swept through a nobler 
circle than the modern bow demands, and he spoke with 
the elaboration of courtesy which suited his age; for, 
though his stride was vigorous, he was no longer young. 
It was a severe, careworn face of a stern, almost hard, 145 
nobility of expression. Yet the smile when it came was 
engaging, and old Mrs. Buchan, as she smiled in return, 
found herself saying to herself that no Southerner, how- 
ever stern, could fail to have this graceful lighter side. 
For his question had been put in the softer accents of 150 
Virginia and of the states farther south. 

"I've lost my way," he began, with the very slightest, 
small, gay laugh. But he was instantly serious. "It is 
so many, many years since I was here." 

Mrs. Buchan pointed up the road. 155 

"That is the way to Princeton." 

"Princeton, of course. That's where we fought the 
British and beat them. It seems strange, does it not, 
that we now fight with them?" 

"We must forget the Revolution now, must we not?" leo 
This from Mrs. Buchan. 

"Forget the Revolution!" he flashed back at her, 
almost angrily. Then more gently: "Perhaps. If we 
remember liberty!" He glanced an instant up the road 



388 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

165 to Princeton hill and then went on. "They fought well 
then, madam. As a soldier I am glad to have such good 
allies. But I was -forgetting. Yonder lies Princeton, 
and from there there is the post-road to New York, is 
there not? I must be in New York by morning." 
170 Mrs. Buchan was old-fashioned, but she found herself 
murmuring amazedly something about railroads and 
motor cars. But he did not seem to hear her. 

*'Yes," he continued. "I must be in New York by 
morning. The first transport with our troops sails for 
175 France." 

"I know," she said, proudly. *'My grandson, George 
Buchan, sails for France." 

"George Buchan? There was a George Buchan fought 
at Princeton, I remember." 
180 "There was. And another George Buchan in the 
War of Eighteen twelve. And a John in the Mexican 
War. And a WilHam in Eighteen sixty-three. There was 
no one in the Spanish War — my son was dead and my 
grandson was too young. But now he is ready." 
185 "Every American is ready,"- her visitor answered. "I 
am ready." 

"You?" she broke out. And for the first time she 
seemed to see that his hair was white. "Are you going? " 
"Every one who has ever fought for America is going. 
190 There is a company of them behind me. Listen." 

Down the road there was faintly to be heard the clatter 
of hoofs. 

"Some joined me in Virginia, some as we crossed the 
Potomac by Arlington, where there is a house which once 
195 belonged to a relative of mine. And there were others, 
old friends, who met me as we came through Valley Forge 
in Pennsylvania. You would not now know Valley 
Forge," he finished, half to himself. 



EXTRA MEN 389 

The river mist had crept farther up and was a little 
thicker now. The moon had risen and the mist shim- 200 
mered and shone almost as if by its own light. The 
world was indeed of the very substance of a dream. The 
hoof beats on the road grew nearer, and at last, while 
old Mrs. Buchan stood in a kind of amazed silence, they 
came into sight, even then mere shadowy, dim, wavering 205 
figures behind the gossamer silver veil which had drifted 
there from the lovely Delaware. The horses looked lean 
and weary, though perhaps this was a trick of the moon- 
light. Yet they dropped their heads and began eagerly 
to crop the short, dusty grass by the roadside. The 210 
moonlight seemed to play tricks with their riders, too. 
For in the fog some of them seemed to have almost 
grotesquely old-fashioned clothes, though all had a sort 
of military cut to them. Some few, indeed, were trim 
and modem. But the greater part were, or seemed to 215 
Mrs. Buchan to be, in shabby blue or worn gray. The 
chance combination of the colors struck her. She was 
an old woman and she could remember unhappy far-off 
days when blue and gray had stood for the fight of brother 
against brother. Into her eyes the tears came, yet she 220 
suddenly smiled through them — a pair of quite young 
men lounged toward the fence, and then stood at ease 
there, the blue-clad arm of one affectionately and boy- 
ishly thrown around the other's gray shoulder. 

"These go with you?" asked old Mrs. Buchan, still 225 
held by her memories. 

"Yes. They are of all kinds and all ages, and some 
of them were not always friends. But you see — " He 
smiled and pointed to the lads by the fence. "One of 
them is from Virginia and the other from Ohio. Virginia 230 
and Ohio fought once. But I only say that I can remem- 
ber that Ohio was part of Virginia once long ago. And 



390 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

is not Virginia part of Ohio and Ohio part of Virginia again 
now? I should be pushing on, however, not talking. 
It is the horses that are tired, not the men." 

"j\nd hungry?" suggested Mrs. Buchan. 

"The horses, yes, poor beasts!" he answered. "For 
the men it does not matter. Yet we must reach New 
York by morning. And it is a matter of some five-and- 
lifty miles." 

"Rest a half -hour and let the horses graze. You can 
make it by sunrise." 

Mrs. Buchan went a little way down the path. It was 
lined with pink and white clove pinks and their fragrance 
was sweet in the night. 

"Open the gate there to the left, men," she called 
out, and her voice rang, to her, unexpectedly strong and 
clear. "Let the horses graze in my green meadow if 
they will." 

They gave an answering cheer from out the mist. 
She saw the meadow gate swing open and the lean horses 
pass through, a long, long file of them. 

"But they will spoil your hay crop," objected the 
horseman. "And it should be worth a fair sum to you." 

Mrs.' Buchan drew herself up. "It is of no conse- 
quence," she answered. 

He bowed again. 

"But I don't understand," she almost pleaded, staring 
again at his white hair and the little flag in his hatband 
that looked so oddly like a cockade. "You say you sail 
to-morrow with my boy?" 

"I think you understand as well as any one." 

"Do I?" she whispered. And the night suddenly 
seemed cold and she drew her little shawl of Shetland 
wool more tightly about her shoulders. Yet she was not 
afraid. 



EXTRA MEN 391 

Her guest stooped and, rising, put one of her sweet- 
smelling clove pinks in his buttonhole. 

"If you permit, I will carry it for your boy to France. 
We are extra men, supercargo," he went on. "We shall 2-0 
cross with every boatload of boys who sail for France — 
we who fought once as they must fight now. They said 
of me, only too flatteringly, that I was first in peace. 
Now I must be first in war ^gain. I must be on the first 
troopship that goes. And I shall find friends in France. 2-5 
We have always had friends in France, I imagine, since 
those first days. Of course, madame, you are too young 
to remember the Marquis de la Fayette." 

"Yes, I am too young," answered old Mrs. Buchan. 
And she smiled through her tears at the thought of her 280 
eighty years. 

"You're a mere chit of a girl, of course," he laughed — 
one of the few times his gravity was relaxed. "Shall I 
know your boy, I wonder?" Then, without waiting 
for her answer, "The George Buchan who fought at the 235 
battle of Princeton was about twenty-two, slim and 
straight, with blue eyes and brown hair and an honest, 
gallant way with him, and a smile that one remem- 
bered." 

"You will know my boy," she told him. "And I 290 
think he will know you. General." 

Even now she swears she does not quite know what 
she meant by this. The magic of the June night had for 
the moment made everything possible. Yet she will not 
to this day say who she thinks the horseman may have 295 
been. Only that George would know him, as she had. 

"I want them all to know that I am there," he had 
repHed. "They will know. They will remember their 
country's history even as we remember. And when the 
shells scream in the French sky they will not forget the 300 



392 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

many times America has fought for liberty. They will 
not forget those early soldiers. And they will not forget 
Grant and Lee and Lincoln. The American eagle, 
madam, has a very shrill note. I think it can be heard 
305 above the whistle of German shrapnel." 

He drank a glass of sherry before he went, and ate a 
slice of sponge cake. Perhaps altogether he delayed a 
scant quarter of an hour. The lean horses came stream- 
ing forth from the green meadow, a long, long file; and 

310 while the moon and the river mist still made it a world 
of wonder, the company, larger somehow than she had 
thought it at first, clattered off up the Princeton road 
toward New York and salt water and the ships. 

The mist cleared for a moment and the great green 

315 meadow was seen, so trampled that it seemed that a 
thousand horses must have trampled it. Al Pent on, 
dignified by Mrs. Buchan as ''the farmer," had now 
belatedly roused and dressed himself. He stood by the 
old lady's side and dejectedly surveyed the ruin of the 

320 hay crop. He is a sober, stupid, serious witness of what 
had happened. And this is important; for when the 
sun rose, and Mrs. Buchan opened her window, the 
breeze from the river rippled in long green waves over a 
great green meadow where the grass still pointed heaven- 

325 ward, untrampled, undisturbed. The Buchan meadow 
could still, as George had believed it would, take care 
of his grandmother. 

This is the story, to be believed, or not, as you like. 
They do as they like about it in Jersey. But old Mrs. 

330 Buchan believes that with each American troopship there 
will sail supercargo, extra men. And she believes that 
with these extra men we cannot lose the fight. George, 
too, writes home to her that we shall win. 



A HYMN OF HATE 393 

A HYMN OF HATE 

BOYD CABLE 

**The troops continue in excellent spirits.'' — Extract from 
Official Despatch. 

A biggish battle had died out about a week before in 
the series of spasmodic struggles of diminishing fury 
that have characterized most of the battles on the West- 
ern Front, when the Tower Bridge Rifles found them- 
selves in occupation of a portion of the forward line 
which was only separated from the German trench by a 
distance varying from forty to one hundred yards. Such 
close proximity usually results in an interchange of com- 
pliments between the two sides, either by speech or by 
medium of a board with messages v/ritten on it — the 
board being reserved usually for the strokes of wit most 
likely to sting, and therefore best worth conveying to the 
greatest possible number of the enemy. 

The "Towers" were hardly installed in their new 
position when a voice came from the German parapet, 
"Hello, Tower Bridge Rifles! Pleased to meet you 
again." 

The Englishmen were too accustomed to it to be sur- 
prised by this uncannily prompt recognition by the enemy 
of a newly relieving regiment of which they had not seen 
so much as a cap top. 

"Hullo, Boshy," retorted one of the Towers. "You're 
makin' a mistake this time. We ain't the Tower Bridges. 
We're the Kamchatka 'Ighlanders." 

"An' you're a liar if you says you're pleased to meet 
us again," put in another. "If you've met us afore I 
lay you was too dash sorry for it to want to meet us 
again." 

"Oh, we know who you are all right," replied the 
voice. "And we know you've just relieved the Fifth 



394 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Blankshires; and what's more, we know who's going to 
relieve you, and when." 

" 'E knows a bloomin' heap," said a Tower Bridge 
private disgustedly; "an' wot's more, I believe 'e does 
know it." Then, raising his voice, he asked, "Do you 
know when we're comin' to take some more of them 
trenches o' yours?" 

This was felt by the listening Towers to be a master- 
stroke, remembering that the British had taken and held 
several trenches a week before, but the reply rather took 
the wind out of their sails. 

"You can't take any more," said the voice. "You 
have n't shells enough for another attack. You had 
to stop the last one because your guns were running 
short." 

"Any'ow," replied an English corporal who had been 
handing round half a dozen grenades, "we ain't anyways 
short o' bombs. 'Ave a few to be goin' on with," and 
he and his party let fly. They listened with satisfaction 
to the bursts, and through their trench periscopes watched 
the smoke and dust clouds billowing from the trench 
opposite. 

"An' this," remarked a Tower private, "is about our 
cue to exit, the stage bein' required for a scene shift by 
some Bosh bombs," and he disappeared, crawling into 
a dug-out. During the next ten minutes a couple of 
dozen bombs came over and burst in and about the 
British trench and scored three casualties, "slightly 
wounded." 

"Hi there! Where's that Soho barber's assistant that 
thinks 'e can talk Henglish?" demanded the Towers' 
spokesman cheerfully. 

That annoyed the English-speaking German, as of 
course incidentally it was meant to do. 



A HYMN OF HATE 395 

"I'm here, Private Petticoat Lane," retorted the voice, 
"and if I could n't speak better English than you I 'd be 
shaming Soho." 

"You're doing that anyway, you bloomin' renegade 
dog-stealer," called back the private. " W'y did n't you 
pay your landlady in Lunnon for the lodgin's you owed 
when you run away?" 

" Schweinhund ! " said the voice angrily, and a bullet 
slapped into the parapet in front of the taunting private. 

"Corp'ril," said that artist in invective softly, "if 
you '11 go down the trench a bit or up top o' that old barn 
behind I '11 get this bloomin' Soho waiter mad enough to 
keep on shootin' at me, an' you'll p'raps get a chance to 
snipe 'im," 

The corporar sought an officer's permission and later 
a precarious perch on the broken roof of the barn, while 
Private Robinson extended himself in the manufacture 
of annoying remarks. 

"That last 'un was a fair draw, Smithy," he exulted 
to a fellow pnvate. "I'll bet 'e shot the moon, did a 
bolt for it, when 'e mobilized." 

"Like enough," agreed Smithy. "Go on, ol' man. 
Give 'im some more jaw." 

"I s'pose you left without payin' your washin' bill 
either, didn't you, sowerkrowt?" demanded Private 
Robinson. There was no reply from the opposition. 

"I expeck you lef a lot o' little unpaid bills, didn't 
you? — if you was able to find anyone to give you tick." 

" I '11 pay them — when we take London," said the voice. 

"That don't give your pore ol' landlady much 'ope," 
said Robinson. "Take Lunnon! Blimy, you're more 
like to take root in them trenches o' yours — unless we 
comes over again an' chases you out." 

Again there was no reply. Private Robinson shook 



396 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

his head. " 'E's as 'ard to draw as the pay that's owin' 
100 to me," he said. "You *ave a go, Smithy." 

Smithy, a believer in the retort direct and no trafficker 
in the finer shades of sarcasm, cleared his throat and 
lifted up his voice. " 'Ere, why don't you speak when 
you're spoke to, you lop-eared lager-beer barrel, you? 
105 Take your fice out o' that 'orse-flesh cat's meat sossidge 
an' speak up, you baby-butcherin' hen-roost robber." 

''That ain't no good, Smitliy," Private Robinson 
pointed out. **Y'see, callin' 'im 'ard names only makes 
'im think 'e's got you angry like — that 'e's drawed you." 
no Another voice called something in German. 

"Just tell them other monkeys to stop their chatter, 

Soho," he called out, "an' get back in their cage. If 

they want to talk to gen'l'men they must talk English." 

"I like your d — d impertinence," said the voice scorn- 

115 fully. "We'll make you learn German, tho, when we've 

taken England." 

"Oh, it's Englan' you're takin' now," said Private 
Robinson. "But all you'll ever take of Englan' will be 
same as you took before — a tuppenny tip if you serves 
120 the soup up nice, or a penny tip if you gives an English- 
man a proper clean shave." 

The rifle opposite banged again and the bullet slapped 
into the top of the parapet. "That drawed 'im again," 
chuckled Private Robinson, "but I wonder why the 
125 corp'ril didn't get a whack at 'im?" 

He pulled away a small sandbag that blocked a loop- 
hole, and, holding his rifle by the butt at arm-length, 
poked the muzzle out slowly. A moment later two 
reports rang out — one from in front and one behind. 
130 "I got 'im," said the corporal three minutes later. 
"One bloke was looking with a periscope and I saw a 
little cap an' one eye come over the parapet. By the 



' A HYMN OF HATE 397 

way 'is 'ands jerked up an' 'is 'ead jerked back when I 
fired, I fancy 'e copped it right enough." 

Private Robinson got to work with a piece of chalk on a 135 
board and hoisted over the parapet a notice: "R.I. P. 
I Boshe, late lamented Soho gargon." 

"Pity I dunno the German for 'late lamented,' but 
they've always plenty that knows English enough to 
unnerstand," he commented. ho 

He spent the next ten minutes ragging the Germans, 
directing his most brilliant efforts of sarcasm against 
made-in-Germany English-speakers generally and Soho 
waiters in particular; and he took the fact there was 
no reply from the Voice as highly satisfactory evidence 145 
that it had been the "Soho waiter" who had "copped 
it." 

"Exit the waiter — curtain, an' soft music!" remarked 
a private known as 'Enery Irving throughout the bat- 
talion, and whistled a stave of "We shall meet, but we 150 
shall miss him." 

"Come on, 'Enery, give us 'is dyin' speech," someone 
urged, and 'Enery proceeded to recite an impromptu 
"Dyin' Speech of the Dachshund-Stealer," as he called 
it, in the most approved fashion of the East End drama, 155 
with all the accompaniments of rolling eyes, breast- 
clutchings, and gasping pauses. 

"Now then, where 's the orchestra?" he demanded 
when the applause had subsided, and the orchestra, one 
mouth-organ strong, promptly struck up a lilting music- leo 
hall ditty. From that he slid into "My Little Gray 
Home," with a very liberal measure of time to the long- 
drawn notes especially. The song was caught up and 
ran down the trench in full chorus. When it finished 
the orchestra was just on the point of starting another 165 
tune, when 'Enery held up his hand. 



398 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

" * 'E goes on Sunday to the church, an' sits among the 
choir,' " he quoted solemnly and added, "Voices 'card, 
off." 
170 Two or three men were singing in the German trench, 
and as they sang the rest joined in and ** Deutschland iiber 
Alles" rolled forth in full strength and harmony. 

"Bray-vo! An' not arf bad neither," said Private 
Robinson approvingly. "Though I dunno wot it's all 
175 abart. Now s'pose we gives 'em another." 

They did, and the Germans responded with "The 
Watch on the Rhine." This time Private Robinson 
and the rest of the Towers recognized the song and 
capped it in great glee with "Winding up the Watch 
ISO on the Rhine," a parody which does not go out of its 
way to spare German feelings. 

"An' 'ow d' you like that, ol' sossidge scoffers?" 
demanded Private Robinson loudly. 

"You vait," bellowed a guttural voice. "Us vind you 
185 op — quick!" 

"Vind op — squeak, an' squeakin'," retorted Private 
Robinson. 

The German reply was drowned in a burst of new song 
which ran like wild-fire the length of the German trench. 
190 A note of fierce passion rang in the voices, and the Towers 
sat listening in silence. 

" Dunno wot it is," said one. "But it sounds like they 
was sayin' something nasty, an' meanin' it all." 

But one word, shouted fiercely and lustily, caught 
195 Private Robinson's ear. 

'Ark!" he said in eager anticipation. "I do believe 
it's — s-sh- ! There!" triumphantly, as again the word 
rang out — the one word at the end of the verse . . . 
''England.''' 
201 " It 's it. It 's the ' 'Ymn of 'Ate ! ' " 



A HYMN OF HATE 



399 



The word flew down the British trench — "It's the 
'Ymn! They're singin' the ' 'Ymn of 'Ate,' " and every 
man sat drinking the air in eagerly. This was luck, 
pure gorgeous luck. Had n't the Towers, like many 
another regiment, heard about the famous "Hymn of 205 
Hate," and read it in the papers, and had it declaimed 
with a fine frenzy by Private 'Enery Irving? Hadn't 
they, like plenty other regiments, longed to hear the 
tune, but longed in vain, never having found one who 
knew it? And here it was being sung to them in full 210 
chorus by the Germans themselves. Oh, this was luck. 

The mouth-organist was sitting with his mouth open and 
his head turned to listen, as if afraid to miss a single note. 

"'Ave you got it, Snapper?" whispered Private 
Robinson anxiously at the end. "Will you be able to 215 
remember it?" 

Snapper, with his eyes fixed on vacancy, began to play 
the air over softly, when from further down the trench 
came a murmur of applause, that rose to a storm of 
handclappings and shouts of "Bravo!" and "Encore — 220 
'core — 'core!" 

The mouth organist played on unheedingly and Private 
Robinson sat following him with attentive . ear. 

"I'm not sure of that bit just there," said the player, 
and tried it over with slight variations. "P'raps I'll 225 
remember it better after a day or two. I'm like that 
wi' some toons." 

"We might kid 'em to sing it again," said Robinson 
hopefully, as another loud cry of "Encore!" rang from 
the trench. 230 

"Was you know vat we haf sing?" asked a German 
voice in tones of some wonderment. 

"It's a great song, Dutchie," replied Private Robinson. 
"Fine song — goot — bong! Sing it again to us." 

27 



4.X) THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

*oo "You haf not understand." said the German angrily. 
and then suddenly from a little further along the Gemian 
trench a clear tenor rose, singing the H\-mn in English. 
The Towers subsided into rapt silence, hugging them- 
selves over their suipendous luck. T\Tien the singer 
240 came to the end of the verse he paused an instant, and a 
roar leaped from the German trench . . . "England!" 
It died a^^-ay and the singer took up the solo. Quicker 
and quicker he sang, the song swirling upward in a rising 
note of passion. It checked and hung an instant on the 
243 last line, as a curling wave hangs poised; and even as 
the falling wave breaks thundering and rushing, so the 
song broke in a crash of sweeping sound along the line of 
the Gennan trench on that one word — "England!" 
Before the last sound of it had passed, the singer 
:oo had plunged into the next verse, his voice soaring and 
shaking with an intensity of feeling. The whole effect 
was inspiring, wonderful, dramatic. One felt that it 
was emblematic, the heart and soul of the German people 
poured out in music and words. And the scom. the 
255 bitter anger, hatred, and maHce that ^'ibrated again in 
that chorused last word might ^i^'ell have brought fear 
and trembling to the heart of an enemy. But the enemy 
inmiediately concerned, to -^it His Majesty's Regiment of 
Tower Bridge Rifles, were most ob\-iously not impressed 
260 w4th fear and trembling. Impressed they certainly 
were. Their applause rose in a gale of clappings and 
cries and shouts. They were impressed, and Private 
'Ener\' Irving, clapping his hands sore and stamping 
his feet in the trench-bottom, voiced the impression 
265 exactly. '"It beats Saturday night in the gallery o' the 
old Brit." he said enthusiastically. *' That bloke — blimy 
— 'e ought to be doin' the star part at Drury Lane" ; and 
he wiped his hot hands on his trousers and fell again to 



A HYMN OF HATE 401 

beating them together, palms and fingers curved cun- 
ningly, to obtain a maximum of noise from the effort. 270 

Each evening after that, for as long as they were in the 
trenches, the men of the Tower Bridge Rifles made a 
particular point of singing the "Hymn of Hate," and the 
wild yell of "England" that came at the end of each 
verse might almost have pleased any enemy of England's 275 
instead of aggravating them intensely, as it invariably 
did the Germans opposite, to the extent of many wasted 
rounds. 

"It's been a great do. Snapper," said Private 'Enery 
Irving some days after, as the battalion tramped along 280 
the road towards "reserve billets." "An' I 'ave n't 
enjoyed myself so much for months. Did n't it rag 'em 
beautiful, an' won't we fair stagger the 'ouse at the next 
sing-sing o' the brigade?" 

Snapper chuckled and breathed contentedly into his 28.> 
beloved mouth-organ, and first 'Enery and then the 
marching men took up the words : 

'Itc of the 'cart, an' 'ite of the 'and, 

'Ite by water, an' 'ite by land. 

'Oo do we 'ite to beat the band? zoo 

(deficient memories, it will be noticed, being c(3mpensated 
by effective inventions in odd lines). 

The answering roar of "England" startled almost to 
shying point the horse of a brigadier trotting up to the 
tail of the column. 205 

"What on earth are those fellows singing?" he asked 
one of his officers while soothing his mount. 

"I'm not sure, sir," said the officer, "but I believe — 
by the words of it — yes, it's the Germans' 'Hymn of 
Hate.' " 3oa 

A French staff officer riding with the brigadier stared 
in astonishment, first at the marching men, and then at 



402 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

the brigadier, who was rocking with laughter in his 
saddle. 

305 "Where on earth did they get the tune? I've never 
heard it before," said the brigadier, and tried to hum it. 
The staff officer told him something of the tale as he had 
heard it, and the Frenchman's amxazement and the briga- 
dier's laughter grew as the tale was told. 

310 We 'ave one foe, an' one alone — England! 

bellowed the Towers, and out of the pause that came 
so effectively before the last word of the verse rose a 
triumphant squeal from the mouth-organ, and the appeal- 
ing voice of Private 'Enery Irving — ''Naw then, put a 

315 bit of 'ate into it." 

WHAT WE OWE TO FRANCE 
A Soldier's Memory 

IAN HAY 

The sense of indebtedness to France which most sol- 
diers cherish, and will always cherish most deeply, is 
human and personal. A front-line battalion is not 
always in the front line; it spends many weeks, in the 

^ aggregate, in the civilian zone that lies in the background 
of the theatre of war. That is where our memories linger. 
Over four million British soldiers have crossed the Straits 
of Dover during the past four years, and of those who 
come back there will be few who will not cherish some 

10 pleasant memory of life behind the line, in rest billets 
among people — poor people; chiefly women, children, 
and old men — whose amazing faculty for cheerful com- 
panionship no anxiety could depress, and no suffering 
abate. As for those who are not coming back, you may 

15 rest assured that their graves will never be neglected. 
Here is an average billet as most of us recollect it. 
A farmhouse, accommodating some two hundred British 



WHAT WE OWE TO FRANCE 403 

soldiers and their officers. The men sleep in the barn, 
their meals being prepared for them upon the company 
cooker, which stands in the muddy road outside. The 
officers occupy any room which may be available within 
the farmhouse itself. The company commander has the 
best bedroom — a low-roofed, stone-floored apartment, 
with a very small window and a very large bed. The 
subalterns sleep where they can — usually in the grenier, 
a loft under the tiles, devoted to the storage of onions, 
and the drying, during the winter months, of the famil}^ 
washing, which is suspended from innumerable strings 
stretched from wall to wall. 

For a mess there is usually a spare apartment of some 
kind. If not, you put your pride in your pocket and 
take your meals at the kitchen table. A farm kitchen in 
Northern France is a scrupulously clean place — the 
whole family gets up at half-past four in the morning 
and sees to the matter — and despite the frugality of her 
home menu, the Jermiere can produce you a perfect 
omelette at any hour of the day or night. 

Then, the family. First, Angdle. She may be twenty- 
five, but is more probably fifteen. She acts as adjutant 
to Madame, and rivals her mother as a deliverer of sus- 
tained and rapid recitative. She milks the cows, feeds 
the pigs, and dragoons her young brothers and sisters. 
But though she works from morning till night, she has 
always time for a smiling salutation to all ranks. She 
also speaks English quite creditably — a fact of which 
Madame is justly proud. "College!" exclaims the 
mother, full of appreciation for an education which she 
herself has never known, and taps her learned daughter 
affectionately upon the head. 

Next in order comes Emile. He must be about four- 
teen, but war has forced manhood on him. All day long 



404 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

he is at work, bullying very large horses, digging, hoeing, 
even ploughing. He is very much a boy, for all that. 
He whistles excruciatingly — usually English music-hall 
melodies — grins sheepishly at the officers, and is prepared 
at any moment to abandon the most important tasks in 
order to watch a man cleaning a rifle or oiling a machine 
gun. We seem to have encountered Emile in other 
countries than this. 

. After Emile, Gabrielle. Her age is probably seven. 
If you were to give her a wash and brush-up, dress her in 
a gauzy frock, and exchange her thick woolen stockings 
and wooden sabots for silk and dancing slippers, she 
would make a very smart little fairy. Last of the bunch 
comes Petit Jean, a chubby and close-cropped youth of 
about six. Petit Jean is not his real name, as he himself 
indignantly explained when so addressed. "Moi, z'ne 
suis pas Petit Jean; z'suis Maurrice!" He is an enthu- 
siast upon matters military. He possesses a little wooden 
rifle, the gift of a friendly Ecossais, tipped with a flashing 
bayonet cut from a biscuit tin; and spends most of his 
time out upon the road, waiting for some one to salute. 
If his salute is acknowledged — as it nearly always is — 
Petit Jean is crimson with gratification. 

Last of all we arrive at the keynote of the whole fabric 
— Madame herself. She is one of the most wonderful 
women in the world. Consider. Her husband and her 
eldest son are away — fighting, she knows not where, amid 
dangers and privations which can only be imagined. 
During their absence she has to manage a considerable 
farm, with the help of her children and one or two hired 
labourers of more than doubtful use or reUabihty. In 
addition to her ordinary duties as a parent and fermiere 
she finds herself called upon, for months on end, to 
maintain her premises as a combination of barracks and 



WHAT WE OWE TO FRANCE 405 

almshouse. Yet she is seldom cross, — except possibly 
when the soldats collect her fallen apples and pelt the pigs 
with the cores — and no accumulations of labour can sap 
her energy. She is up by half-past four every morning, 
yet she never appears anxious to go to bed at night. The 
last sound which sleepy subalterns hear is' Madame 's 
voice, uplifted in steady discourse to the circle around 
the stove. She has been doing this, day in and day out, 
since the combatants settled down to trench warfare. 
Every few weeks brings a fresh crop of tenants, with 
fresh pecuHarities and unknown proclivities; and she 
assimilates them all. 

The only approach to a breakdown comes when, after 
paying her little bill, and wishing her "Bonne chance!" 
ere you depart, you venture on a reference, in a few awk- 
ward, stumbling sentences, to the absent husband and 
son. Then she weeps copiously, and it seems to do her 
a world of good. All hail to you, Madame — the finest 
exponent, in all this war, of the art of carrying on! We 
know now why France is such a great country. 

To-day the enemy, by what we hope is his final con- 
vulsion, has overrun yet another strip of French soil. A 
mile or two of territory more or less matters httle. The 
real tragedy of the last German advance is that the folk 
with whom we lodged in Armentieres and Albert and 
Baileul, and a thousand hamlets and farms of the Pas de 
Calais — folk who had lived secure for more than three 
years behind the bulwark of the British trenches, accom- 
modating soldiers and refugees with a hospitality which 
no mere considerations of cubic space seem able to 
limit — are now refugees themselves. This to the British 
soldier is again a personal matter. He has taken it 
deeply to heart. He feels somehow that he has failed 
in his trust towards his good friends; and we know that 



4o6 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

120 when the great day comes, and the boche is finally rele- 
gated to his proper place in the animal kingdom, not the 
least of the joj^s of the home-coming soldier will be the 
certainty that he is leaving behind him those simple, 
kindly, voluble hosts of his restored once and for all to 

125 their own hospitable roof-tree. 

— From The London Times, July 19, 1918, p. 559 



"THEY HAVE COME FOR THE SAKE 
OF FRANCE" 

An Arrival of American Troops in a French Port, and the 
Meaning of the Welcome They Received 

HAWTHORNE DANIEL 

An automobile was waiting at the door when the signal- 
man brought us word that a convoy had anchored ten 
miles down the river to wait for the turn of the tide. 
Fortunately we were not busy, and consequently were 

able to ride down to in order to be among the first 

to welcome the arriving soldiers. 

It was a matter of minutes to be bowling along the 
strip of white road, through the American army camp, 
deserted now but soon to be filled to overflowing, across 
a railroad, past a siding filled with strange little freight 
cars, between two rows of beautiful old poplars on our 
way to a point from which we could see the ships as they 
passed. Two airplanes soared overhead on their way 
back to the aviation field after sweeping the river mouth 
for possible German mines. Children waved to us as we 
passed, shouting ''les Americains!'' as they recognized our 
nationality. 

We turned off the main road before reaching and 

rolled down a pretty little lane, that ended near a villa 



i 



THEY COME FOR THE SAKE OF FRANCE 407 

at the water's edge. Already the ships had started again. 20 
We could hear the rattle of their windlasses as they heaved 
in their anchors. One by one they slid up the channel, 
passing near us as they made a turn that brought them 
close to shore. Tke beach was dotted with delighted 
French people. On the low wall of a garden that sloped 25 
down from the villa near which we had stopped, a French 
girl was standing. She was, perhaps, sixteen, and she 
held an American flag that waved over her head and 
threatened to lift her from the wall as the breeze caught 
its brilliant folds. A ship passed close in, and she waved 30 
the flag with all her strength. On the crowded deck of 
the transport the troops waved in return. Another ship 
passed, and again she waved the flag. Again the crowded 
decks answered. And then, steaming sedately up the 
channel, came one of the former German liners, once 35 
named for a member of the royal house of Hohenzollern. 
Its decks were crowded with three thousand men. The 
rigging was filled with them. The rails were lined. 
Every inch of the ship's enormous length seemed alive 
with men in khaki and sailors in blue. lo 

The girl on the wall seized her flag with renewed vigor, 
and waved it madly. We expected to see the same answer 
the other ships had given, but instead, as I trained my 
glasses on the bridge, I saw an officer seize a megaphone. 
The gold on his sleeve glistened in the sun as he spoke 45 
to the men below him. The distance was too great for 
us to hear his words, but a moment later the ship seemed 
swayed by a common impulse. Every hat waved in the 
air for an instant, waved again — and again. Then over 
the glistening water came three mighty cheers. 50 

The girl stood amazed. For a moment she failed to 
grasp it all, and finally it dawned on her that they had 
returned her greeting — that the spirit of America had 



408 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

answered that of France. She seized her flag, and waved 
it until it snapped in the breeze. Then, overcome by her 
emotions, she jumped from the wall, and threw her arms 
about the neck of a little woman in black who was standing 
there. • 

"Chere mere," she cried, "ils sont venus pour la 
France." ("Darling mother, they have come for the 
sake of France.") 

Stopping at Army Headquarters on the way back to 
town, we found that the first two transports had passed 
through the lock before we reached our office, the balcony 
of which overlooked the lock at about the elevation of 
the bridges of the transports as they passed. The third 
ship was being warped through the gates as we returned, 
and we found that our balcony was occupied by several 
young wom.en from the Y. M. C. A. who had accepted 
our invitation to view the arrival from our point of 
vantage. 

The third ship entered the lock, and the gates closed 
astern of her, while the crowd in the street below our 
balcony waved their hats, and cheered. 

" 'Alio, Sammee," shouted the onlookers, whereat the 
boys who crowded the decks of the ship cheered with 
typical American abandon. 

Cigarettes, candy, fruit were tossed aboard, and in 
return the new arrivals sang American songs that to 
those of us who had been long away from home seemed 
to be the latest echo from Broadway. 

Our balcony was not more than fifty feet from the 
bridges of the ships as they passed. It was easily possible 
for us to shout our greetings to old shipmates as they lay 
in the lock waiting for the water level to change. We 
had shouted to several and had found that the trip had 
been uneventful so far as submarines were concerned, 



THEY COME FOR THE SAKE OF FRANCE 409 

when one of the young women of our party gave a shriek 
of delight, and seizing a signal flag that lay near, she 
waved it enthusiastically at the crowded deck. 90 

"Bob," she cried, "Bob!" 

For a moment no one answered, and then a handsome 
young lieutenant leaned over the rail, looked intently for 
a moment, and took off his hat in astonishment. He 
looked again to make doubly sure, and waved his hat in 95 
greeting. 

"Mary," he called, and could say no more. 

The ship began to move, and in a few minutes had slid 
into the inner basin, where his form melted into the 
khaki-colored blot that covered the deck. loo 

The girl turned to those of us who had watched the 
incident. Her eyes were bright with tears she could not 
hold back. 

"That's my brother," she said. "I did n't even know 
he had gotten his commission." 105 

The upper gate of the lock closed. The water level 

dropped quickly. The lower gate opened, and the 

entered. She was formerly a German liner. Slowly she 
crept into the lock, with squads of men carrying her 
hawsers. She filled the lock from end to end, and towered no 
high above the surrounding buildings. Her decks were 
filled with thousands of men. The lock gate closed, and 
she was made fast. A babel rose from her decks. The 
crowd in the street below cheered with renewed vigor, 
and then on the forward deck an army band appeared, ns 
The soldiers cleared a place for it. The leader waved his 
baton, and the music started. The crowd leaned for- 
ward, listening eagerly. One by one the men in uniform 
straightened, and stood stiffly at attention. The shouting 
ceased, and every Frenchman stood with his hand at his 120 
\^isor in the French military salute. The band played 



410 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

on, and the blood of those of us who came from across the 
Atlantic rushed in thrilling vigor through our veins, as 
the strains of the "Star-Spangled Banner" floated out 

125 over the heads of that silenced multitude. 

The music ceased. For a moment the crov/d was 
quiet, and then, with the energy born of the enthusiasm 
the music had imparted, the cheering commenced. Wave 
on wave of sound passed up and down the street. And 

130 then the band master again waved his baton. Quickly 
the crowd was silenced. Once more French hands met 
French visors. The silence of the crowd was remarkable, 
but it lasted only a minute. Then in low, but ever- 
increasing volume, their voices joined the music. The 

135 soldiers on the ship joined in, humming when they did 
not know the words, and the rapidly increasing sound 
boomed across the bay, until a squad of German prisoners, 
begrimed by their work on the coal pile, stood spellbound 
by the marvelous music of the " Marseillaise." 

140 The scene was too large to grasp: I could not get it 
all, but one incident forced itself upon me. 

Below us, in the dusty street, stood an old woman. 
She was dressed in mourning, probably for a son she had 
lost in the fight for liberty. She was bent from toil. 

145 Her hands, as she leaned on her cane, were gnarled and 
crooked. Her dress was shabby. I had not seen her 
until the crowd had surged toward the ship, leaving her 
in a little open spot. As the band played the national 
anthem of her country, her hands tremblingly searched 

150 in her bag for her handkerchief. She drew it forth, and 
wiped her eyes. Then a wave of sound surged over her, 
and she broke down. Crying as if her heart would break, 
she tottered through the crowd, and I saw her last as 
she turned a comer, where she disappeared from sight. 

155 Dusk had fallen, and the lights on the ships shone 



THEY COME FOR THE SAKE OF FRANCE 411 

softly. The passed from the lock, and another ship 

entered. The supper hour came and went, but the crowd 
remained. As each ship entered, the crowd found its 
energy renewed. It was dark before the last one passed 
into the security of the basin, where the thousands in leo 
khaki were safe for the moment from the submarines they 
had passed and the shells they are to meet. 

It was early the next morning when I heard the bugle 
that started the disembarkation of the newly arrived 
contingent. Dressing hurriedly, I walked down to the 155 
docks. Already troops were filing down the gangways, 
and forming into companies. An hour later one of the 
ships was unloaded, and the troops marched down the 
street, across the bridge, and up through town, halting 
just as the first of the column disappeared over a rise in no 
the street. 

Another ship landed its men, who joined the first com- 
panies, and the transport, having gotten rid of her soldiers, 
swung a scaffolding over her stem. Sailors swarmed 
down the lines that held it, and, with chipping chisels 175 
in their hands, started to work cleaning away the marks 
in the paint where the former name of the ship had been. 
The letters had been removed long since, but the accumu- 
lation of paint made the name still easily legible. The 
street was crowded with soldiers. They reached out of iso 
sight over the rise, and still four huge ships were crowded 
with men. 

A squad of German prisoners, guarded by several 
French soldiers with long bayonets fixed to longer rifles, 
marched down the street. They wound in and out m 
among the companies of soldiers, and finally found their 
way barred by a regiment waiting for its place in line. 

The faces of the Germans bore a puzzled look. They 
seemed to be wondering what witchcraft these Americans 



412 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY _ 

190 had used to get through the invulnerable zone of the 
submarines. They looked around at the thousands of 
troops in the street, and at the other thousands on the 
ships. They glanced up, and found themselves under 
the overhanging stern of the huge liner on which the 

195 American bluejackets were changing the name. One 
man touched another, calling his attention to work 
going on above them. Others glanced up, and soon the 
squad had gathered the meaning of. what was happening. 
They stood there for ten minutes or more, while overhead 

200 the laughing American sailors were chipping away the 
remains of a Hohenzollem name. I wondered if that 
could be taken as an omen. 

The squad of prisoners marched away, disappearing 
among the khaki uniforms. A band marched down the 

205 street, playing a lively air. By noon not a soldier 
remained of the thousands that had landed,. but the camp 
outside the town that had been all but deserted on the 
previous day had become a crowded city — another con- 
tingent of Americans had arrived in France, unheralded 

210 and unsung. 

THE AMERICAN PIONEER 

FRANKLIN K. LANE 

The sculptors who have ennobled these buildings with 

their work have surely given full wing to their fancy in 

seeking to symbolize the tale which this exposition tells. 

Among these figures I have sought for one which would 

5 represent to me the significance of this great enterprise. 

Prophets, priests, and kings are here, conquerors and 

• mystical figures of ancient legend ; but these do not speak 

the word I hear. 

My eye is drawn to the least conspicuous of all — the 
10 modest figure of a man standing beside two oxen, which 



THE AMERICAN PIONEER 413 

look down upon the court of the nations, where East and 
West come face to face. 

Towering above his gaunt figure is the canopy of his 
prairie schooner. 

Gay conquistadores ride beside him, and one must look 
hard to see this simple, plodding figure. 

Yet that man is to me the one hero of this day. 

Without him we should not be here. 

Without him banners would not fly, nor bands play. 

Without him San Francisco would not be to-day the 
gayest city of the globe. 

Shall I tell you who he is, this key figure in the arch 
of our enterprise? 

That slender, dauntless, plodding, modest figure is the 
American pioneer. 

To me, indeed, he is far more; he is the adventurous 
spirit of our restless race. 

Long ago he set sail with Ulysses. But Ulysses turned 
back. 

He sailed again with Columbus for the Indies and heard 
with joy the quick command, ''Sail on, sail on, and on." 
But the westward way was barred. 

He landed at Plymouth Rock and with his dull-eyed 
oxen has made the long, long journey across our con- 
tinent. 

His way has been hard, slow, momentous. 

He made his path through soggy, sodden forests where 
the storms of a thousand years conspired to block his way. 

He drank with delight of the brackish water where the 
wild beasts wallowed. 

He trekked through the yielding, treacherous snows; 
forded swift-running waters; crept painfully through 
rocky gorges, where Titans had been at play; clambered 
up mountain sides, the sport of avalanche and of slide; 



414 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

dared the limitless land without horizon; ground his 
teeth upon the bitter dust of the desert; fainted beneath 
the flail of the raw and ruthless sun; starved, thirsted, 
fought; was cast dov/n but never broken; and he never 
turned back. 

Here he stands at last beside this western sea, the incar- 
nate soul of his insatiable race — the American pioneer. 

Pity? He scorns it. 

Glory? He does not ask it. 

His sons and his daughters are scattered along the path 
he has come. 

Each fence post tells where some one fell. 

Each farm, brightening now with the first smile of 
Spring, was once a battlefield, where men and women 
fought the choking horrors of starvation and isolation. 

His is this one glory — he found the way; his the 
adventure. 

It is life that he felt, life that compelled him. 

That strange, mysterious thing that lifted him out of 
the primeval muck and sent him climbing upward — that 
same strange thing has pressed him onward, held out new 
visions to his wondering eyes, and sung new songs into his 
welcoming ears. 

And why? 

In his long wandering he has had time to think. 

He has talked with the stars, and they have taught 
him not to ask why. 

He is here. 

He has seated- himself upon the golden sand of this 
distant shore and has said to himself that it is time for 
him to gather his sons about him that they may talk; 
that they may tell tales of things done. 

Here on this stretch of shore he has built the outermost 
camp-fire of his race and he has gathered his sons that they 



THE AMERICAN PIONEER 415 

may tell each other of the progress they have made — 
utter man's prayers, things done for man. 

His sons are they who have cut these continents in 
twain, who have slashed God's world as with a knife, 
who have gleefully made the rebellious seas to lift man's 
ships across the barrier mountains of Panama. 

This thing the sons of the pioneer have done — it is 
their prayer, a thing done for man. 

And here, too, these sons of the pioneer will tell of 
other things they do — how they have filled the night with 
jeweled light conjured from the melting snows of the far- 
off mountains; how they talk together across the world 
in their own voices; how they baffle the eagles in their 
flight through the air and make their way within the 
spectral gloom of the 'soundless sea; how they reach into 
the heavens and draw down food out of the air to replenish 
the wasted earth; how with the touch of a knife they 
convert the sinner and with the touch of a stone dissolve 
disease. 

These things and more have they done in these latter 
days, these sons of the pioneer. 

And in their honor he has fashioned this beautiful cit}^ 
of dreams come true. 

In their honor has he hung the heavens with flowers 
and added new stars to the night. 

In blue and gold, in scarlet and purple, in the green of 
the shallow sea and the burnt brown of the summer hill- 
side, he has made the architecture of the centuries to 
march before their eyes in column, colonnade, and court. 

We have but to anchor his quaint covered wagon to 
the soil and soon it rises transformed into the vane of some 
mighfy cathedral. 

For after all Rome and Rheims, Salisbury and Seville 
are not far memories to the pioneer. 
28 



4i6 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Here, too, in this city of the new nation the pioneer 
has called together all his neighbors that we may learn 
115 one of the other. 

We are to live together side by side for all time. 
The seas are but a highway between the doors of the 
nations. 
We are to know each other and to grow in mutual 
120 understanding. 

Perhaps strained nerves may sometimes fancy the ges- 
ture of the pioneer to be abrupt, and his voice we know 
has been hardened by the winter winds. 
But his neighbors will soon come to know that he has 
125 no hatred in his heart, for he is without fear; that he is 
without envy, for none can add to his wealth. 

The long journey of this slight, modest figure that 
stands beside the oxen is at an end. 

The waste places of the earth have been found. 
130 But adventure is not to end. 

Here in his house will be taught the gospel of an 
advancing democracy — strong, valiant, confident, con- 
quering — upborne and typified by the independent, 
venturesome spirit of that mystic materialist, the Ameri- 
135 can pioneer. 

THE BOWMEN — A FANTASY OF THE WAR 

ARTHUR MACHEN 

It was during the Retreat of the Eighty Thousand, and 
the authority of the Censorship is sufficient excuse for 
not being more explicit. But it was on the most awful 
day of that awful time, on the day when ruin and disaster 
5 came so near that their shadow fell over London far away ; 
and, without any certain news, the hearts of men failed 
within them and grew faint; as if the agony of the army 
in the battlefield had entered into their souls. 



THE BOWMEN — A FANTASY OF THE WAR 417 

On this dreadful day, then, when three hundred thou- 
sand men in arms with all their artillery swelled like a 
flood against the little English company, there was one 
point above all other points in our battle line that was 
for a time in awful danger, not merely of defeat, but of 
utter annihilation. With the permission of the Censor- 
ship and of the military expert, this corner may, perhaps, 
be described as a salient, and if this angle were crushed 
and broken, then the English force as a whole would be 
shattered, the Allied left would be turned, and Sedan 
would inevitably follow. 

All the morning the German guns had thundered and 
shrieked against this corner, and against the thousand 
or so of men who held it. The men joked at the shells, 
and found funny names for them, and had bets about 
them, and greeted them with scraps of music-hall songs. 
But the shells came on and burst, and tore good EngUsh- 
men limb from limb, and tore brother from brother, and 
as the heat of the day increased so did the fury of that 
terrific cannonade. There was no help, it seemed. The 
English artillery was good, but there was not nearly 
enough of it; it was being steadily battered into scrap 
iron. 

There comes a moment in a storm at sea when people 
say to one another, *'It is at its worst; it can blow no 
harder," and then there is a blast ten times more fierce 
than any before it. So it was in these British trenches. 

There were no stouter hearts in the whole world than 
the hearts of these men; but even they were appalled as 
this seven-times-heated hell of the German cannonade 
fell upon them and overwhelmed them and destroyed 
them. And at this very moment they saw from their 
trenches that a tremendous host was moving against their 
lines. Five hundred of the thousand remained, and as 



41 8 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

far as they could see the German infantry was pressing 
on against them, column upon column, a grey world of 
men, ten thousand of them, as it appeared afterwards. 

There was no hope at all. They shook hands, some of 
them. One man improvised a new version of the battle- 
song *'Good-by, good-by to Tipperary," ending with 
"And we shan't get there." And they all went on firing 
steadily. The officers pointed out that such an oppor- 
tunity for high-class fancy shooting might never occur 
again ; the Germans dropped line after line ; the Tipperary 
humorist asked, "What price Sidney Street?" And the 
few machine guns did their best. But everybody knew 
it was of no use. The dead grey bodies lay in companies 
and battalions, as others came on and on and on, and 
they swarmed and stirred and advanced from beyond 
and beyond. 

"World without end. Amen," said one of the British 
soldiers with some irrelevance as he took aim and fired. 
And then he remembered — he says he cannot think why 
or wherefore — a queer vegetarian restaurant in London 
where he had once or twice eaten eccentric dishes of cut- 
lets made of lentils and nuts that pretended to be steak. 
On all the plates in this restaurant there was printed a 
figure of St. George in blue, with the motto "Adsit 
Anglis Sanctus Georgius" ("May St. George be a present 
help to the English"). This soldier happened to know 
Latin and other useless things, and now, as he fired at 
his man in the gray advancing mass — three hundred 
yards away — he uttered the pious vegetarian motto. 
He went on firing to the end, and at last Bill on his right 
had to clout him cheerfully over the head to make him 
stop, pointing out as he did so that the King's ammuni- 
tion cost money and was not lightly to be wasted in 
drilling funny patterns into dead Germans. 



THE BOWMEN — A FANTASY OF THE WAR 419 

For as the Latin scholar uttered his invocation he felt 
something between a shudder and an electric shock pass 
through his body. The roar of the battle died down in 
his ears to a gentle murmur; instead of it, he says, he 
heard a great voice and a shout louder than a thunder peal 
crying, "Array, array, array!" 

His heart grew hot as a burning coal, it grew cold as 
ice within him, as it seemed to him that a tumult of voices 
answered to his summons. He heard, or seemed to hear, 
thousands shouting, "St. George! St. George!" 

"Ha! messire; ha! sweet Saint, grant us good dcHv- 
erance!" 

"St. George for merry England!" 

"Harow! Harow! Monseigneur St. George, succour 
us." 

"Ha! St. George! Ha! St. George! a long bow and 
a strong bow." 

"Heaven's Knight, aid us!" 

And as the soldier heard these voices he saw before 
him, beyond the trench, a long line of shapes, with a 
shining about them. They were like men who drew the 
bow, and with another shout, their cloud of arrows flew 
singing and tingling through the air towards the German 
hosts. 



The other men in the trench were firing all the while. 
They had no hope; but they aimed just as if they had been 
shooting at Bisley. 

Suddenly one of them lifted up his voice in the plainest 
EngHsh. 

"Gawd help us," he bellowed to the man next to him, 
" but we 're blooming marvels ! Look at those grey . . . 
gentlemen, look at them! D'ye see them? They're not 



420 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

going down in dozens nor in 'undreds; it 's thousands, it is. 
Look! look! there's a regiment gone while I'm talking 
to ye." 

"Shut it!" the other soldier bellowed, taking aim. 
"What are ye gassing about?" 

But he gulped with astonishment even as he spoke, for, 
indeed, the grey men were falling by the thousands. 
The English could hear the guttural scream of the German 
officers, the crackle of their revolvers as they shot the 
reluctant; and still hne after line crashed to the earth. 

All the while the Latin-bred soldier heard the cry : 

"Harow! Harow! Monseigneur, dear Saint, quick to 
our aid ! St. George, help us ! " 

"High Chevalier, defend us!" 

The singing arrows fled so swift and thick that they 
darkened the air; .the heathen horde melted from before 
them. 



"More machine guns!" Bill yelled to Tom. 

"Don't hear them," Tom yelled back. "But, thank 
God, anyway; they've got it in the neck." 

In fact, there were ten thousand dead' German soldiers 
130 left before that salient of the English army, and conse- 
quently there was no Sedan. In Germany, a country 
ruled by scientific principles, the Great General Staff 
decided that the contemptible English must have em- 
ployed shells containing an unknown gas of a poisonous 
133 nature, as no wounds were discernible on the bodies of 
the dead German soldiers. But the man who knew what 
nuts tasted like when they called themselves steak knew 
also that St. George had brought his Agincourt Bowmen 
to help the English. 



YOKELS 421 

YOKELS 

HAROLD SETON 

Three men sat at the window of a famous New York 
club and looked out on Fifth Avenue. Crowds of well- 
dressed men and women walked up and down, swarms of 
costly motor cars rushed to and fro; everything denoted 
activity, affluence, assurance. 

"I never tire of this view," said one of the men, 
"although I have sat in this same chair, looking out of 
this same window, at this same scene, for years and 
years. London may have only one Piccadilly, and Paris 
may have only one Champs Elysees, but the world has 
only one Fifth Avenue. It is unrivaled. It is unique." 

"I agree with you entirely," said the second man. 
"New York is the center of the world, and Fifth Avenue 
is the center of New York. Everybody who is anybody 
gravitates here sooner or later. The greater they are, 
the sooner they get here. My ancestors, for instance, 
got here three hundred years ago. And we have stayed 
here ever since." 

"In that respect you have the advantage of me," said 
the first man. "My ancestors only came here two hun- 
dred and fifty years ago. But they have seen the mar- 
velous growth of the Empire City of the Empire State. 
That is why I feel so sorry for the people in the other parts 
of the country, in such minor cities as Baltimore, and 
Denver, and Los Angeles. How can the people there feel 
the spirit of ambition, the pride of achievement?" 

"If you feel that way about what you call the minor 
cities," said the third man, "how do you feel about the 
really small places, the towns and villages?" 

"How do I feel about them?" said the second man. 
"I don't feel at all. I don't think about them." 



422 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

"Neither do I," said the first man. "Does anybody — 
except the poor unfortunates who happen to be born 
yokels instead of privileged characters?" 

The third man got up, went over to a table, picked up 
a book, and came back with it. The book was Who's 
Who in America. The man turned the pages of the fat 
red volume. 

"Yokels instead of privileged characters, eh?" said the 
third man. "Ahem! Let's see. Here is a man who 
was born in Watertown, New York. That 's a small town. 
His name is Robert Lansing, and he is Secretary of State. 
Pretty good for a yokel ! Here is a man who was bom in 
Martinsburg, West Virginia. That 's a small town. His 
name is Newton Diehl Baker, and he is Secretary of 
War. Pretty good for a yokel ! Here 's a man who was 
born in Washington, North Carolina. That's a small 
town. His name is Josephus Daniels, and he is Secretary 
of the Navy. Pretty good for a yokel!" 

"But — " protested the first man. 

"Here's a man who was born near Marietta, Georgia," 
continued the third man, ignoring the interruption. 
"The place was not even mentioned on the map. The 
man's name is William Gibbs McAdoo, and he is Secretary 
of the Treasury. Pretty good for a yokel! Here's a 
man who was born in West Branch, Iowa. That's a 
small town. His name is Herbert Clark Hoover, and he 
is the Food Controller of the United States. Pretty good 
for a yokel ! Here 's a man who was born in Linn County, 
Missouri. Another place not even on the map. His 
name is John Joseph Pershing, and he is the general in 
command of the United States forces in France. Pretty 
good for a yokel ! " 

"But — " protested the second man. 

The third man slammed the fat red book, and, still 



THE MAN WITH HIS HAT IN HIS HAND 423 

regardless of the interruption, continued talking. "There 
was a man who was born in Bridges Creek, Virginia. 
That Is a small town. His name was George Washington, 
and he was the first President of the United States. Pretty 
good for a yokel! There was a man who was born near 
Hodgenville, Kentucky. That 's a small place. His name 
was Abraham Lincoln, and he was the sixteenth Presi- 
dent of the United States. Pretty good for a yokel! 
And there was a man who was born in Staunton, 
Virginia. That 's a small town. His name is Woodrow 
Wilson, and he is the twenty-eighth President of the 
United States. Pretty good for a yokel!" 

"But you are prejudiced," cried the first man. "You 
are a yokel yourself." 

"You must be a yokel," cried the second man. "It 
takes a thief to catch a thief." 

"I plead guilty to the charge," said the third man, 
rather sheepishly. "I come from Brooklyn." 

THE MAN WITH HIS HAT IN HIS HAND 

CLARK HOWELL 

The Twenty-ninth Regiment of United States Volun- 
teers was quartered at Atlanta. They had received 
orders for their departure. The troops were formed in 
full regimental parade in the presence of thousands of 
spectators, among whom were anxious and weeping 
mothers, loving sisters and sweethearts, and a vast multi- 
tude of others who had gone to look, possibly for the 
last time, upon departing friends. Of the enlisted men 
a great percentage were from Georgia, most of them from 
simple farmhouses and the quiet and unpretentious 
hearthstones which abound in the rural communities. 
A few had seen service in Cuba, but most of them had 



424 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

volunteered as raw recruits from the farm. There were 
sturdy and rugged mountaineers from the Blue Ridge 
counties — strong, steady, and intrepid, with the simpli- 
city characteristic of the mountain fastnesses from which 
they came. There were boys from the wire grass — plain, 
unassuming, and unaffected, their eyes lighted with the 
fire of determination and their hearts beating in unison 
with the loyalty of their purpose. The men moved like 
machines. The regiment of raw recruits had become in 
a few months a command of trained and disciplined sol- 
diers. The very air was fraught with the impressive 
significance of the scene, which had its counterpart in 
many of the states where patriots enlisted faster than the 
muster roll was called. 

Leaning against a tree was a white-haired mountaineer 
who looked with intent eyes and with an expression of 
the keenest sympathy upon the movements of the men 
in uniform. His gaze was riveted on the regiment, and 
the frequent applause of the visiting multitude fell 
apparently unheard on his ears. The regiment had 
finished its evolutions; the commissioned officers had 
lined themselves to make their regulation march to the 
front for their report and dismissal. The bugler had 
sounded the signal; the artillery had belched its adieu 
as the king of day withdrew beyond the hills ; the halyard 
had been grasped, and the flag slowly fell, saluting the 
retiring sun. As the flag started its descent the scene 
was characterized by a solemnity that seemed sacred in 
its intensity. From the regimental band there floated 
upon the stillness of the autumn evening the strains of 
the "Star- Spangled Banner." Instinctively, and appar- 
ently unconsciously, the old man by the tree removed 
his hat from his head and held it in his hand in reverential 
recognition until the flag had been furled and the last 



THE MAN WITH HIS HAT IN HIS HAND 425 

strain of the national anthem had been lost in the resonant 
tramp of the troops as they left the field. 

What a picture that was — the man with his hat in his 
hand, as he stood uncovered during that impressive 
ceremony! I moved involuntarily toward him, and, 
impressed with his reverential attitude, I asked him where 
he was from. "I am," said he, "from Pickens County"; 
and in casual conversation it developed that this raw 
mountaineer had come to Atlanta to say farewell to an 
only son who stood in line before him, and upon whom 
his tear-bedimmed eyes might then be resting for the 
last time. The silent exhibition of patriotism and loyalty 
had been prompted by a soul as rugged but as placid 
as the great blue mountains which gave it birth, and by 
an inspiration kindled from the very bosom of nature 
itself. 

There was the connecting link between the hearthstone 
and the capitol. There was the citizen who, repre- 
senting the only real, substantial element of the nation's 
reserve strength— "the citizen standing in the doorway 
of the home, contented on his threshold." — had ansv.^ered 
his country's call — the man of whom Henry Grady so 
eloquently said: "He shall save the Republic when the 
drum tap is futile and the barracks are exhausted." 
There was that in the spontaneous action of the man that 
spoke of hardships to be endured and dangers to be dared 
for country's sake; there was that in his reverential atti- 
tude that said, even though the libation of his heart's 
blood should be required in far-off lands, his life would 
be laid down as lightly as his hat was lifted to his country's 
call. Denied by age the privilege of sharing the hard- 
ships and the dangers of the comrades of his boy, no rule 
could regulate his patriotic ardor, no limitation could 
restrain the instincts of his homage. 



426 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

AMERICANUS SUM^ 

EDWARD A. STEINER 

"I wonder why Mrs. Salciccioli is so nervous this 
morning," I said to my wife. "She acts Hke a hen on a 
hot griddle." 

Now I have never seen a hen on a hot griddle except 
when properly prepared for the ordeal, and then the hen 
did not behave at all as our landlady was behaving. She 
wiped the dust from my desk six times in succession, from 
the topmost pigeonholes down to the claws of its ill- 
shaped legs. I endured this, until she began the seventh 
attack, and then, with an oft-repeated bene, bene, I gently 
pushed her out of the room. 

I had just succeeded in putting Mrs. Salciccioli out of 
my mind and. was trying hard to make up my lost twenty 
minutes when, after a nervous knock on the door, the 
cause of my trouble again entered the room. This time 
she was accompanied by Mr. Salciccioli, who never by 
any chance permitted me to forget that he was a Roman 
with an ancient lineage, while I was only a barbarian from 
beyond the seas. How contemptuously he shrugged his 
shoulders when he deigned to talk to me about "the dollar 
country," as he called it. 

"No sculpture, no music, no painting, except that 
which you bring from Italy. 

"Look at the poor Italian! No coal, no water-power, 
no silver, no gold ; but he takes a block of marble from 
Carrara and carves a god out of it." 

There was no use arguing with a man who believed that 
our flowers have no fragrance, our birds no song, and our 
children no talent except for making money. 



1 Reprinted by permission from The Broken Wall, by Edward A. 
Steiner. Copyright by Fleming H. Revell Company. 



AMERICANUS SUM 427 

However, he was never too proud to accept the hand- 
some sum of American money we paid for our lodgings, 
or the tips frequently bestowed. Never did I hear him 
say more than the courtly grazia; while to my cordial 
greetings, he replied with an abbreviated giorno minus 
the flourishes to which one becomes accustomed in Italy. 

On this particular morning Mr. Salciccioli carried a 
newspaper, which by its bulk betrayed its overseas origin. 
His wife held a letter which she pressed into my reluctant 
hand. 

"Pardon, Signor, it is a letter from our son, our Rocco, 
our eldest who has been in America seven years. It is 
the biggest letter he ever sent." 

"Will you not look at the newspaper?" asked the hus- 
band. "A grand American newspaper! It is wonderful! 
Glorious!" 

To hear Mr. Salciccioli speak in such appreciative terms 
of anything American was so unheard-of an occurrence 
that I hastily told him to show me the paper. Eagerly, 
while Mrs. Salciccioli hovered around, he spread out 
before us twenty-odd sheets of newspaper. Page after 
page of wasted forest and whatever stuff printer's ink is 
miade from; then his thin, long finger pointed to a picture. 

"This is our dear Rocco," he said proudly, "our eldest, 
and his picture is in the American paper." 

"I wonder v/hat he has been cured of," murmured my 
wife, and I did not tell the proud Roman that in America 
one might have his picture in the paper for various 
reasons. 

It was well that I did not so humiliate my haughty 
landlord, for I saw in large headlines, over columns of 
closely printed matter, the reason that Rocco's picture 
was there, and it fully justified the father's pride. 

"New citizens banqueted." Thus the headlines ran. 



428 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

"Brilliant speeches made. Cordial welcome to the 
naturalized," and so down the column, as follows: 

"The Leading Men of the City Were Hosts at a 
Banquet and Newly Made Americans Listened to 
Kindly, Cordial Speeches. 

"One hundred and sixty men who once were subjects 
of kings and queens and czars and emperors sat down to 

a great dinner table in R the evening of July 4th, 

subjects no longer, but citizens of the United States. 
With them sat down judges and clergymen and educators 
— the most widely known and influential men of the city. 
These men were the hosts; and the ex-subjects of a half 
dozen potentates, many of whom could speak EngHsh 
only brokenly, diggers of ditches whose hands were hard 
from outdoor toil, were the guests. The city was bidding 
its new citizens welcome. 

" It was an effort to make this assemblage of new-made 
Americans feel that they really were Americans, that the 

old residents of R were glad that the new ones had 

come, and that they were eager to help them in every 
way. The guests, Germans, Italians, Greeks, men of 
Holland, EngHshmen, Irishmen, Russians, and Poles, 
went away feeHng that they were no longer 'strangers in 
a strange land' but fellow citizens of their hosts, and that 
those hosts had a real interest in their welfare. 

"Dr. R , president of the university, told the new 

citizens that the stability of the American government 
depended upon a reverence for law and a recognition of 
the fact that liberty under the law is the only true liberty. 

" 'The signers of the Declaration of Independence,' he 
said, ' were all immigrants or the sons of immigrants, but 
they were all united in the purpose of seeking liberty in 
this new land. The America of to-morrow will not be 
the land of the free and the home of the brave unless it 
is growing and triumphant by liberty under the law.* 



AMERICANUS SUM 429 

"The most brilliant addresses were made by the 
immigrants themselves, who with deep emotion told 100 
what America meant to them." 

Then came that part of the story told in Rocco's letter 
to his parents, which his mother had brought for me to 
see. I gladly read it. 
"My adorable and much loved Parents: 105 

"I am sending you by this post fifty lire, which is a 
little more than I sent last month. The ten extra lire 
are 'my treat.' That is what the Americans say when 
they are very happy and want to give somebody some- 
thing, because they are happy. Often they do it by no 
drinking much beer in a saloon. I think it would be 
wrong for me to spend money that way, for my happiness 
is a high and lofty one; too high for drink. I am too 
happy even for writing. My pen jumps all " over the 
paper. 115 

"I am still working in the big shop as I wrote you. 
The shop is big and nice and clean, and I have a good 
foreman. The only thing I do not Hke is that he never 
calls me by my right- name. He says it would break his 
jaw to pronounce it. Americans want everything quick 120 
and easy; so they call me Rock. The- name of our 
honorable family they do not even attempt to write or 
pronounce. They say that it would twist their tongues 
out of joint. 

"In the night school where I have been going, they were 125 
teaching about how to be a good citizen, so I asked my 
foreman how to become a citizen of the United States. 

"He went with me to the court where I was asked if 
I had my first papers, which I was glad to say I could 
answer by saying Yes. Then the judge asked me many 130 
questions and when I answered he said: 'Very good,' 
which means Molto bene. 



430 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

"He asked me to swear allegiance to my new country 
and I did it; but it made no great impression on me, a 

135 it was done so simply. The Americans do not believe in 
ceremonials as we do. I went away with my papers in 
my pocket, and then I forgot all about it. 

"Last month one day, I received a beautiful invitation 
to a banquet at the finest hotel in the city. It was 

140 printed in the colors of this free country: red, white, and 
blue. I showed it to the foreman and he said I ought 
to go. 

"It was on the 4th of July. That is the day the 
Americans celebrate as the great national holy day. 

145 Always before, the shop closed on that day and we had 
nothing to do but drink and shoot firecrackers, of which 
the Americans are very fond. Many of them get hurt 
on that day, and kill themselves in memory of the time 
when they killed the Englishmen. 

150 "This time I did not buy drink or firecrackers; but a 
new suit of clothes, and a white shirt and a collar and a 
beautiful cravat. . I went to the hotel, the same one where 
I used to scrub the floors and wash the windows when I 
first came here. 

155 "The man who used to call me Dago, an ugly name they 
give the Italians here, took my hat and gave me a piece 
of pasteboard and I was taken in the elevator that the 
guests ride in, to a beautiful room, all decorated with 
flags. I had a seat at the chief table by the side of the 

160 consul of our country. 

"The dinner was the finest I have ever eaten. I think 
not even the highest nobles in Rome eat finer than we did ; 
but better than the eating was the music; and then, best 
of all, the speeches. 

165 "The Judge of the Supreme Court of the state was 
master of ceremonies. The president of the university 



AMERICAN us SUM 431 

made a speech, and so did the padre, who they say is a 
good man, although you know I have not much love for 
the padres of our church. 

"Then the master of ceremonies asked me to make a 170 
speech ! 

"Beloved and much honoured parents, I felt as if that 
whole room was going around and around. There I 
stood, your son, before those noble men and women, and 
did speak. I would have given anything in the world 175 
if you, my beloved parents, had been there to have seen 
my triumph. They clapped their hands and shouted 
bravo! at everything I said. 

"I told them that I am a Roman, that my father's 
ancestors were once citizens of old Rome; I told them how iso 
through ignorance and heavy taxation my forefathers 
lost everything, even their citizenship, and how thankful 
I am that now in America, though I am working at a 
menial job, citizenship has been restored to me in a more 
powerful, richer and better country. m 

"I told them how I wished my beloved and revered 
parents were here to see the triumph of their son. I 
also said that as my ancestors fought for Rome and then 
for Italy, so i want to fight, like our great Garibaldi ! 

"I told them that my honoured father belonged to the loo 
Young Italy, that he knew the great Mazzini, our states- 
man, scholar and philosopher. 

"I told them that he fought against the Austrians and 
later against the Papal army, at Castelfidardo ; how he 
was wounded on the 17th of September (I am not sure 195 
about that date, much honoured and respected father, 
but the Americans are ignorant of our history and it does 
not matter) . 

"At last I could not hear myself talk, for the Americans 
clapped their hands all the time. 200 

29 



432 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

"Then, my beloved and much honoured parents, came 
the great event of the evening. All rose to their feet and 
together we vowed for the good of the city in which we 
live. 
205 "This is what we all vowed: 

" 'We will never bring disgrace to this our city by any 
act of dishonesty or cowardice, nor ever desert our com- 
rades; we will fight for the ideals and sacred things of the 
city, both alone and with many; we will revere and obey 
210 the city's laws, and do our best to incite a like respect 
and reverence in those above us who are prone to annul 
them and set them at naught; we will strive unceasingly 
to quicken the public's sense of civic duty; that thus, in 
all these ways, we may transmit this city not only not 
215 less but greater, better and more beautiful, than it was 
transmitted to us.' 

* ' When it was all done we sang together the American 
national hymn. 

' ' After I got home to my lodgings I could not sleep, but 

220 I went to my trunk and took out my citizenship papers. 

I spread them out upon my bed, and I knelt down before 

them and I kissed them a hundred times, and I said, over 

and over again: 'Americanus sum — Americanus sum.' 

"Now, my beloved and adored parents, I send you the 
225 paper which tells about it and has my picture, that you 
only see that I report correctly to you. 

"My picture is not very well done. I think I look 

much better in life. In the big picture which is also in 

the paper, where all are taken together, I look like a 

230 ghost; for it was taken with a big flash of light, and I was 

frightened very much. 

"Now, my beloved and much esteemed parents — " 
Here the father asked me to read no farther — but his 
wife urged me to go on. 



AMERICANUS SUM 433 

" I hope you are not worrying any more over your son, 235 
and that you feel you have cause to be proud of him. 

"I like the work and am honoured by the foreman. I 
do not gamble any more, and some of these days when 
everything is forgotten in Rome I shall come home to 
see you — " 240 

I returned the letter unfinished to Mrs. Salciccioli, for 
her husband was growing more and more uneasy. 

Taking the newspaper and the letter, he disappeared 
with scant courtesy, leaving his excited wife to follow 
at her leisure. She was eager to tell about her Rocco, 24,-, 
and we were not unwilling to hear her. 

Rocco was bom into genteel poverty, the oldest of 
many. The father was proud and harsh, and the boy 
was on the streets more than at school or at home. He 
fell in with evil-minded people and before his twelfth 250 
year was arrested for picking pockets. 

He went from bad to worse, until he was drafted into 
the army; there, chafing under the restraint, he deserted 
and went to America. 

The father became morose and silent, and forbade the 255 
boy's name to be mentioned in the family. 

When letters finally came from Rocco he never read 
them. Even when the letters brought enclosures of 
ten lire, twenty lire, thirty, and as much as fifty Hre a 
month the father refused to believe in the boy. 260 

"Not until last night, Signor, when the newspaper 
came would he speak our boy's name. Now he is happy 
and proud. And I, Signorina," turning to my wife. 
"You will know how I feel when your boys grow up. 
Ah! the blessed ^Virgin only knows how I have prayed. 260 

"Honoured Signor, will you do me one great favor? 
When you return to that wonderful America of yours will 
you go to its ruler and carry to his honourable highness 



434 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

the gratitude of an Italian mother for what that noble 

2-0 country has done for her son?" 

It had taken Mrs. SalciccioH a long time to tell her 
story; so the morning was over and the luncheon hour 
near, when at last, with many apologies, she bowed 
herself out. 

275 I felt repaid for my lost morning, however, when, a few 
moments later as we were going out into the glory of an 
Italian noon, Mr. Salciccioli stopped me at the foot of 
the long, cold staircase. 

''Signor, — I beg your pardon. I have said to you 

280 often that your country has no pictures, no music, — 
that it cannot make gods out of Carrara marble. That 
is all true, I still believe, but — " and he said it with 
evident reluctance — "it has made a man out of my son 
Rocco, and that is true Art — the grandest, the noblest 

285 art." 



THE SOLDIER WHO CONQUERED SLEEP ^ 

PIERRE i\IILLE 

He was a little sergeant, very young, undoubtedly of 
the class of 19 14. Pinned to his coat he wore the Croix de 
Guerre. At the sight of the captain, alongside of whom 
I was walking the afternoon of one of the last Sundays 
in July, he saluted hurriedly. It was not on his part 
the ordinary salute imposed by discipHne — the salute 
which every subordinate owes to his superior. These 
two men knew each other. I recognized that fact from 
the warmth of the gesture. I recognized it also from the 
manner in which the officer responded to the homage of 
the youthful soldier. He stopped and began conversation : 



1 Copyright 1918 by Dodd. Mead and Company, Inc. 



THE SOLDIER WHO CONQUERED SLEEP 435 

"Well, my bo3% are you on leave?" 

The face of the young sub-officer lighted up. It 
became sublime in its enthusiasm, its devotion, its 
admiration, its gratitude, and its love — yes, in its love. 
We had the right, before the war, to believe that the 
visage of a very young man could be transfigured only 
by a meeting wdth the first woman he has ever loved. 
To-day we know better. We know that a young man will 
never give himself as completely to a woman as to a 
chief whom he has recognized on the field of battle to be 
really a chief. 

It is necessary to describe things as they are. If a 
man vows to a woman, on a certain occasion, that he 
is ready to die for her, it is very seldom that she puts 
him under any obligation to perform that supreme sac- 
rifice. But that same oath is the basis of military dis- 
cipline. And in the latter case it must be kept. And 
it is kept. 

So this injunction of fatal self-abnegation is all the more 
certain to embody itself in some particular being, chosen 
because of one knows not what mysterious qualities — a 
man who possesses, sometimes unwittingly, the gift of 
authority and of whom those who follow him say: "We 
will die for him!" That love — the love of the soldier 
for his chief — is the highest of all loves. Women can 
never help being jealous of it. 

The little sub-officer had blushed with joy. He 
stammered : 

"Yes, my captain, I am on leave. Yes, my captain. 
And you, too, as I see! That gives me pleasure!" 

He was incapable of expressing himself any more 
clearly. And I felt that what he meant to say was: 

"It gives me the greatest pleasure to see that you are 



436 THE WORLD AND D'EMOCRACY 

Still alive, as I am — more pleasure, indeed, than to know 
that I am still alive." 

"Do you still recite Latin verses, you young intel- 
lectual?" asked the captain. 

The sub-officer had the air of not understanding. Per- 
haps he did n't catch the point. 

"And they have given you that," continued the cap- 
tain, putting his finger on the Croix de Guerre. "That 
will go well later on your frock coat when you are a pro- 
fessor." 

"Oh, my captain," said the boy, "you know very well 
that it was you — that you are the one to whom I owe it." 

"My boy," answered the captain, "the decisions of 
the military tribunals are always right. Good-bye." 

"That little fellow," said the captain to me, "is natu- 
rally chic. He is about the best I have in my company. 
On one occasion he was magnificent. And no one will 
ever know about it if I don't tell you the story. It is I 
who framed the recommendation on which he received that 
cross; and the recommendation was untrue. A lie from 
beginning to end, I repeat. Yet I could not do otherwise. 

"You understand what a tir de barrage is? When an 
attack is launched the enemy establishes in advance of 
the position assaulted a curtain of projectiles — a curtain 
which ought to be maintained, if the supply of munitions 
lasts long enough, until the physical, and especially the 
moral, forces of the adversary are exhausted. It is a 
curtain of steel against which he is going to hurl himself, 
if he has the energy to complete his advance. 

"The first lines of the attack melt away. The others 
have to lie down and wait. That is where the courage 
is required — for lying down and waiting. Less well in 
hand, less determined to die rather than not reach their 



THE SOLDIER WHO CONQUERED SLEEP 437 

goal, the troops recoil. There is nothing else to do but 
to begin over again, if one can. 

"That little blond whom you have just seen was then 
only a corporal. He had been with my company but 
two months when he set out with his section to carry 
the trenches at N . The other section was in sup- 
port and I accompanied it. 

"Many things happened. The bombardment was 
frightful. It seemed to me that the attack had failed. 
Our losses were severe, most of the officers being disabled. 
I was astonished to come through myself without a 
scratch. As they often tell me, I must be 'varnished'! 
But what astonished me more, and greatly upset me, was 
not to see the other section come back. It had com- 
pletely disappeared. It v/as impossible for me to dis- 
tinguish the place which it had occupied, or even to guess 
where the section was. For it no longer fired a shot. 
There was no sign of a man. Had it been captured in a 
body? Or worse? 

"Finally I decided to go forward myself and hunt for 
it. The route was not comfortable. But at last I 
arrived. I arrived, and I must tell you that it is a dis- 
agreeable, an infinitely disagreeable, sensation to approach, 
all alone and in cold blood, a hell which one has quitted 
only a short time before, when one was surrounded by his 
men, when one still had hopes of success, when, in a 
word, one was in the heat of an attack. 

"When I discovered the section which I was seeking I 
saw that it was on the inner edge of that abominable 
curtain of fire, of monstrous explosions, and of death, 
having attempted in vain to recross it. And when I 
said hell a moment ago, I meant what I said. There 
was the rending and tearing of the hundreds of big shells. 



438 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

which cut away like razors or crush like hammers every- 
thing they strike — stones, trees, or men. There were 
the displacements of the air caused by the explosions, 
which loosen the muscles from the chest, which can kill 

115 one in an instant by stopping the beating of the heart. 
And there was the incessant and fearful din. The dis- 
placements of the air, as I told you, can arrest the move- 
ments of the heart. The noise, the shock of the noise, 
is powerful enough to halt the mechanism of the brain. 

120 "The section was there, almost intact. It seemed to 
lack not more than fifteen men. But those whom I saw 
— the survivors, the entire remnant — were they not 
dead? Lying in the brushwood, and especially in the 
holes dug by the big shells, they seemed inert; they made 

125 no movement. Crawling behind the brushwood, almost 
flat on my stomach, I ran across a trench where some 
one was evidently still alive and stirring. 

" It was the boy whom you just saw, the corporal of the 
class of 19 1 4, from the Sorbonne or the Normal. I don't 

130 remember which. He was making very queer motions, 
as if he was forcing himself to gesticulate. And at the 
same time he was mtmibling incomprehensible things. 
At the moment when I came upon him he was declaiming: 

Et jam nox humida coela 

135 Praecipitat suadentque cadentia sidera somnos. 

"I had gone through the Lyceum and I recognized 
Virgil. He stopped short when he saw me and blushed 
a little, at the same time, I thought, lifting his eyes to 
me with absolute confidence — eyes which were deli- 
no ciously clear. 

" 'How about the others?* I asked. 

" 'Lieutenant D. is dead. Lieutenant V. is wounded. 
The men? The men are asleep, my captain. I didn't 



THE SOLDIER WHO CONQUERED SLEEP 439 

want them to go back. But I could n't prevent them 
from going to sleep, because of the noise.* 143 

"And that was true. It is an effect of this incessant 
cannonading — of this thunder that racks the brain — 
that it reduces one internally to a sort of pulp. A new 
means for hypnotizers to put their subjects to sleep with, 
but a very costly one. Men sleep in spite of themselves, 150 
as in hypnosis or delirium. 

" 'And you?' I said. 

** 'When I sav/ that,' he answered, *I thought that the 
essential thing was to stay here. I said to them: "Sleep. 
For me I will see to it that I don't go to sleep. And that 155 
will be all that I shall need to do." And I did see to it. 
I made gestures, I talked, I recited.' 

"In that way he held the section there — this boy. I 
reflected a moment, and then dashed off an order on a 
sheet of my notebook. loo 

" 'I shall watch now,' I said to him. 'Carry this to 
the rear. Our advance must not be lost.' 

" It was in this way that the ground conquered on that 
side was preserved for us. But when I wanted to recom- 
mend this boy for mention in the regimental order of the m 
day I saw that I could never tell the truth — never! 
On paper, you see, all this would have a semi-comic air. 
And how to invent some variant of it ? No, it was n't 
possible. It was n't possible. 

"So I wrote: no 

" *He contributed to hold the ground won by the sec- 
tion, all of whose officers had been disabled, by encour- 
aging it during the long hours by voice and gesture.' 

"A pure fiction, was it not, from beginning to end? 
But you will admit he earned them all the same — his 175 
citation and his cross." 



440 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

THE SOUL OF FLANDERS 

HENDRIK WILLEM VAN LOON 

Outside, the wind was blowing a gale. The little hotel, 
high on top of the dunes of Cadzand, shook with the effort 
of the storm. The single kerosene lamp flickered and 
threw uncertain shadows on the old yellow table of the 
taproom. Through the windows one saw the angry 
clouds, Valkyrie-like, racing past the pale moon. With 
some trouble I opened the door and stepped outside. 
In the dark of the porch, a freezing Dutch sentinel was 
stamping his feet. He wore a heavy gray coat, and 
carried his gun under his right arm as if it were a gigantic 
umbrella. "A cold night," I said. "A cold night," he 
answered. "Anything new?" I asked. '*A few signals 
from Zeebrugge. A U-boat must be trying to get in. If 
you wait a moment you will see some fine fire- works." 

At the foot of the dunes, the sea stretched toward the 
lighter horizon, dark as pitch Where the water met 
the sand of the shore a faint light of phosphorescent foam 
moved to and fro. Near us, two uncertain lanterns 
bobbed violently up and down — a belated Dutch tor- 
pedo-boat guarding the mouth of the Scheldt. Sud- 
denly, far out toward the West a rocket illuminated the 
sky. It showed green and then red. On the mole of 
Zeebrugge a red light burned brightly for a moment, 
spelling out dots and dashes. Then all was darkness 

, again, and another German submarine crept back into 
its lair, surreptitiously, like a beast of prey, coming 
home from its nightly hunt. 

"That will be all," said the sentinel, "unless there is 
going to be another bombing attack"; and looking at 

) the sky, "It is too stormy for that. It will be a quiet 
night." 



THE SOUL OF FLANDERS 441 

"Tell me," I asked, "where is the highest point here 
in the dunes?" "Right behind the house. But it is 
very dark and the place is full of barbed wire. What 
do you want to do?" "I want to see Flanders sleep," 
I answered. "That can be done. Poor Flanders has 
been asleep now for four years. You won't see much." 

We followed a narrow path that began a few feet away 
from the house. "Careful," the soldier warned me, 
and in the sudden light of the bare moon I caught the 
cold gleam of polished steel. An anti-aircraft gun stood 
there silent and lonely, like a patient horse, waiting the 
w^ord of its master to come and serve. Then we entered 
a labyrinth of barbed wire, and after some stumbling 
in the slippery sand we reached the top of the flat dune. 
"There," the soldier said, "there is Flanders." 

Over the endless expanse of the flat Flemish land, the 
night had thrown her merciful cloak. Bruges, Ghent, 
Ypres, cities of ancient glory and fame, the center of a 
world of commerce and art and good cheer — centuries 
before our American continent was dreamed of the}" 
lay there, submerged in the common misery of foreign 
invasion, while the heavy boots of strange masters 
stamped the ground where Jan Breidel and Pieter de 
Coninck and Artevelde and Rubens and all the great 
leaders of a great race had so long slept their last peaceful 
slumbers. High above our heads a flock of seagulls 
circled. They shrieked their angry and plaintive wail. 
Suddenly they were quiet. In the midst of the storm 
and the noise of the surf, a mysterious beast of the night 
laughed aloud — laughed as if he mocked at all the world 
— then beat his invisible wings and departed for unknown 
regions. 

The soldier made ready to go back to his post. "That 
was the ghost of Tyl Ulenspiegel," he said; "every night 



442 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

at this time he flies across Flanders land. The Germans 
hate him. They shoot at him. But they cannot kill 
him. He lives forever." Just then there was a short,, 
sharp click, and from the nearby frontier came the report 
70 of a shot. 

Soon at Versailles the age-old Flemish question will 
come up for final settlement. Endless books and endless 
pamphlets and endless articles will be written to prove 
one point of view and to disprove another contention. 

75 The answer to the Flemish puzzle is to be found in the 
pages of this Flemish Bible [The Legend of the Glorious 
Adventures of Tyl U lens pie gel]. 

For peace conferences come, and peace conferences go, 
the map of Europe is shaped one way at one time and the 

80 next year is arranged along different lines, but the invisible 
spirit of Tyl Ulenspiegel stays with his people forever. 
During the many years of slavery he has become their 
patron Saint. The Flemish people have endured and 
have survived everything. And they have kept on 

85 smiling. 



PART VI 

THE SPIRIT OF DEMOCRACY IN DRAMA 
AND SONG 



One man with a dreamy at pleasure , 
Shall go forth and conquer a crown; 

And three with a new song's measure 
Can trample an empire down. 

— Arthur O'Shaughnessy 



PART VI 
INTRODUCTORY 

The dramatic method has ahvays been one of the most 
effective methods of expressing the ideals that dominate 
the world at any particular time. The concrete presen- 
tation through characters actually present to the eye and 
ear makes a directness of appeal often lacking where 
the active imagination of the reader must be relied upon 
to visualize wholly the background settings and relation- 
ships of the actors. Besides, such concrete presentation 
gives the participants a chance actually to be the person- 
ages taking part in some crisis and adds the sense of 
actuality to the dream. 

The first selection for this section is Mrs. Gamett's 
excellent little one-scene play, "The Fiery Pillar." It 
is clearly an allegory of the Great War, and reflects 
with both force and delicacy the various points of view 
with which the call to conflict were regarded by various 
groups in our country, as well as the unity of spirit into 
which the discussion settled down as the final decision 
was made. 

The Plainsmen, a quiet, peaceable people, have been 
wantonly attacked by the savage Hill Men, to whom 
they have given not the least offence. Unable to defend 
themselves, they ask aid of a stronger neighboring people, 
but this latter people is divided in its counsels as to 
whether or not to give the help so desperately needed. 
The arguments which are advanced at the forest council 
meeting sound very familiar to any American reader. 
One man feels that his people should rush into war just 
to save themselves from the evil effects of continued 

445 



446 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

peace — "We're weak and flabby from neglected arms"; 
another feels that "war for the sake of war's but wanton 
sport"; one woman believes that the doctrine "of blow 
for blow, of life for human life " cannot be justified on any 
grounds, while another insists that mere human decency 
demands that they go to the relief of the peaceable, 
unoffending Plainsmen against "these marauders from 
the North." 

Back and forth the feelings of the crowd are swayed, 
until at length there enter two refugees from the Plains 
people — a boy and a girl. They tell of the cruelty that 
has been shown to their innocent countrymen, and the 
war party in the forest council triumphs. The old chief 
declares himself too feeble to lead them in battle, and 
charges them to choose a new leader; but first he urges 
them to decide on 

**.... a valiant watchward, and a sign, 
An emblem we may follow to the death," 

declaring that when the right word is spoken it will "leap 
a fiery pillar to the skies!" 

One suggests Strength as the watchword, and offers his 
blue scarf as the emblem; a woman offers her white scarf, 
and the slogan "A righteous cause"; another woman 
urges Self -Sacrifice as the watchword, and presents her 
scarf of red as the symbol; and the chief puts forward 
his chain of stars as emblematic of the watchword he 
suggests — Loyalty. 

Then the young smith of the forest, who has been at 
work fashioning a shield and spear and ornamenting them 
with an eagle, steps forward and speaks so forcibly that a 
hush descends upon the people. He declares that he 
sees "written on the walls encompassing the earth" a 
word "gleaming with fires impossible to quench." His 
word is LIBERTY; his emblem a banner made of the 



INTRODUCTORY 447 

combined red, white, and blue of the scarfs, with the 
chief's stars added. His choice is hailed with acclama- 
tion, and he is chosen the leader. 

The second selection, "Peace with a Sword," may 
fitly be called a dramatic song program. The arrange- 
ment constitutes a musical interpretation of America's 
part in the war. The performance admits all degrees 
of simplicity or of elaborateness according to the needs 
of the occasion or the skill of the musical director. Most 
of the music required is familiar, and the whole pro- 
gram is within the range of any group of high-school 
students. 

A chorus and a single narrator or announcer are the 
performers. This latter is the Spirit of America, or the 
Spirit of Liberty. The narrator should be a person with 
a good voice, one that can reach all parts of the audi- 
torium and that can impress the spirit of the connecting 
passages upon the listeners. These connecting passages 
give the sense of movement demanded, as the nation 
rouses herself to the crusade in behalf of liberty, joins 
the other free nations in a common patriotism of self- 
sacrifice, and moves irresistibly to the triumphant vision 
of peace for a war- wearied world. 

The musical numbers are arranged in an especially 
significant and effective order. They begin with the 
national hymns which constitute the individual patriotic 
expressions of the various allied nations. As the pro- 
gram progresses, the song becomes the ** one song of democ- 
racy for all," moving with solemn stateliness to the dox- 
ology of peace, and then rising to the heights in the great 
"Hallelujah Chorus." 

Thus the music and the slight dramatic thread of 
movement reenforce each other, and great poets and great 
composers alike join hands in expressing the deep-seated 

30 



448 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

realities of our hearts. The contrast indicated in 
the title by the words "peace" and "sword" appears 
in the program, which includes such widely differing 
songs as Browning's "The Year's at the Spring" and "The 
Marseillaise." 



i 



THE FIERY PILLAR 
A Play in One Scene 

LOUISE AYRES GARNETT 



CHARACTERS 



Victor 

The Chief 

Basil 

Malcolm 

Fentress 

Charles 

vSlMON 



First Boy 
Second Boy 
Lad ) ^ ^ 
Girl } ^^^^2^^^ 

Sarah 
Martha 
A Woman 



A crowd of men, women, youths, and girls 

(This play may be presented by an entire male cast. Change the 
names of the characters where necessary.) 



THE FIERY PILLAR 

Scene: A clearing in the woods, a forge near middle foreground 
against which a shield is resting. 

At forge is Victor, a youth clad in tawny skins, bare arms gleaming 
as he swings his hammer. 



W^ 



fes 



-^ — 



At my forge I sing, I sing Straight from the heart of me. 



i 



i 



^ 



^^^ 



At my forge I swing, I swing The ham-mer strong and free. 



i 



s 



is=S: 



^^=^ 



-i^ #- 



* #— 1^ 

Swing and sing, Swing and sing, Forg-ing a fear-less soul. 



* I I J I ^ 



i 



itift 



-• — 0- 



Give and live, Give and live, Mine is the freeman's 

Victor (singing) : At my forge I sing, I sing 

Straight from the heart of me. 
At my forge I swing, I swing 
The hammer strong and free. 
Swing and sing, 
Swing and sing. 
Forging a fearless soul. 



451 



452 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Give and live, 

Give and live, 

Mine is the free man's goal. 

At my forge I strive, I strive, 
Shapening at my will. 
At my forge alive, alive, 
I labor and fulfil. 

Strive, alive, 

Strive, alive. 
Making my spear and shield. 

Mine to choose. 

Mine to lose, 
And mine to never yield. 
[A youth rushes on, excitement pressing him.] 

Basil: Victor! Victor! 

Victor {ceasing his blows): What is it, friend? Come 

close. • 
Basil: The people! Some are clamoring to fight. 

And some are urging peace with peaceless hate. 

Oh, hear them! 

[Sounds of distant voices massed in protest rise, then ebb away,] 

Victor: I had drowned them with my forge. 

What makes their babel — trouble from the 
Hills? 
Basil: Within the hour a messenger arrived 

With news of wanton warfare from the North. 
The Hill Men have descended on the Plains, 
And countless of our neighbors lie besieged. 
Victor : I *ve felt that it was coming. 
Basil: They appeal 

For help. Upon our men and neighboring men 
They look for their salvation. 



THE FIERY PILLAR 



453 



[Again the massed voices rise and ebb, and continue to make a back- 
ground of intermittent sound. Victor throughout the scene works 
on the spear, swinging his hammer, and shaping and burnishing.] 

Victor: Just as stars 

Must wheel into their places, so I knew 
These mad barbarians would some day come 
And yoke their bloody policies to deeds. 
Such greed as theirs, such lust, could not be 

stayed. 
And at my forge I, too, have been preparing. 
The shield is finished, and the spear will soon 
Be ready for my wielding. I 'm on fire 
To try the temper of my arms, to go 
Crusading for the righting of men's wrongs! 
See, Basil ^— 'tis an eagle I have wrought 
Upon my shield, and that same fearless bird 
Surmounts my spear. 

Basil: Oh, shield and spears are well, 

But who will lead us? We're a quiet folk 
Without a thought of strife or preparation. 

Victor: Think you our clan will pledge the Plainsmen's 
cause 
And stand by them like brothers? 

Basil: Who can say? 

People are but pendulums a-swinging: 
They may, may not ; they may, may not ; they — - 

Victor: Must! 

O Basil! We must go. 

Basil: But who would lead ? 

Our Chief is full of wisdom, but too old — 

Victor: Too old to lead. 

[The sounds ijt the distance grow in volume.] 



454 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Basil: And that is why dispute 

Is waxing hot and hotter in the town. 
Victor : They fan the air with syllables of speech 

And think that words mean action. 
Basil: I've a dread 

Our honor may be dashed upon the rocks. 
Victor (hands at sides and head thrown back as he faces 
front) : Our God shall raise a leader in our midst 

And point to us the way. 

[Two boys run on gaily.] 

First Boy (tossing his arms) : Hurrah ! hurrah I 

Victor: Hush, lad! What are they saying in the town? 
First Boy: Oh, some would fight at once, and some 

would wait — 
Second Boy : And others say this trouble is not ours. 
First Boy: The Chief will put it to a vote, he says — 
Second Boy : They 're going to the council house. 
Basil: Then we 

May join them as they pass here on the way. 

[Enter a group of men and women, some in earnest argument. 
A great shout goes up in the distance. They stop and listen.] 

Malcolm: It's time our peaceful citizens were roused. 
We 're weak and flabby from neglected arms. 
We need to war if but to teach our men 
The virtue of resistance. 

[They are about to move on when Victor speaks, still busy at his task.] 

Victor: That's no base 

On which to build a tower that will stand. 

[They turn back.] 

War for the sake of war 's but wanton sport — • 
The kind the Hill Men wage upon the Plains. 



THE FIERY PILLAR 



455 



[People continue to enter, pausing to listen to the discussion.] 

Fentress: Victor is right. What call have we to risk 
The lives and homes of law-abiding men"' 
Shall thirst for blood put out the family fires 
And make the windows dark? 

Victor: Wait, friend! Not so. 

I never urged abolishment of war. 
I meant to fight for lusty joy of fighting 
Is no just ground on which to build a cause. 

IMalcolm: I say: strike from the shoulder with your 
fists. 
Stand back for no one; never yield an inch. 

[Cheers.] 

Martha : Shame ! shame ! How can you lend a heedful 

ear 
To words that long to spill the blood of men ? 
How seek to justify the savagery 
Of blow for blow, of life for human life ? 
Have we so stumbled on the upward climb 
That life is held a bauble of no price ? 
Must we go forth, an unmolested band, 
And choose the scarlet trail that leads to 

death? 
Sarah : But think of all the deeds of butchery 

Flaunted by these marauders from the 

North! 
The Plainsmen were as peaceable as we, 
And just as unoffending; yet the foe 
Swept ruthlessly upon them, murder-driven, 
And seized their comely meadows, quiet 

hearths. 
The whole bright treasury of heart and hand. 

[Murmurs arise that grow into a shout.] 



456 THE WORLD AND D:EM0CRACY 

vSiMON {pushing forward) : How know you they are true— 

these tales we hear? 
Martha: Yes, who can sift the fraudulent from real? 
Sensation travels double with desire. 

[Cheers and hisses greet her words. The noises which were in the dis- 
tance draw near. Enter the Chief, a man of dignity and age, a 
chain of stars with a pendent key, insignia of his position, about 
his neck. He is followed hy men, women, girls, and youths, some 
of the latter with drums and fifes slung across their shoulders. 
Many of the crowd wear scarfs of varied colors. The Chief has 
nearly crossed the clearing.] 

Martha {shrilly) : Who knows the false from real ? 
100 Simon : Who knows ? who knows ? 

[More cheers and hisses.] 
Chief {pausing) : Silence ! Each one of you shall have 
a chance 
To empty clean the pocket of his mind. 
And what more worthy temple could we find 
For frank, free speech than spacious court like 
this? 
[Cries of " Free speech! Hurrah!"] 

105 I heard you in the market place ripe-cocked 

With pompous phrases and impetuous words. 
Here let us gravely and with temperance 
Make our decision. It is long, indeed, 
Since war has come a-pounding at our gates, 
no It's ours to say if we will bid it enter. 

Charles: The tales we hear are most disquieting. 

Rumors, like witches, fly about our heads, 
Dropping their broomstick straws until our 

skins 
Are prickled with them like the porcupine. 
115 Simon {belligerently) : That's what I say: how know the 
tales are true 



THE FIERY PILLAR 457 

That fill our ears and thicken all the air? 
We brew a tempest from the teapot's steam ! 

[ Two refugees from the Plains, a lad and a girl, ragged, passionate with 
despair, showing the havoc of hunger and hardship, come on and 
with a cry throw themselves at the feet of the Chief.] 

Lad: Mercy, sir! Have mercy on my people! 
Chief: Your people, boy? Arise and tell their name. 
Lad {rising proudly) : The Plainsmen, sir. 

[The crowd murmurs.] 

Chief: Plainsmen, you say? Speak on 120 

And tell us if the bloody tales we hear 
Are tales of truth. 

Lad : May God destroy my body 

And offer me as bait meat to the beasts 
If what I say be not the speech of truth. 

Girl {passionately, standing): We'll tell you som.ewhat 125 
less than more than truth, 
For should we tell the whole you 'd shake your 

heads 
And say: They lie, or else they have gone mad. 

Chief: Say what you may, our ears shall speed your 
words 
With sympathy's momentum. 

Lad: We have come, 

The prey of endless dangers, to beseech 130 

Your help in arms. The enemy attacked 
Without a whispered warning ; for no cause 
They 've driven us to battle, and our towns 
Are sacked, our churches pillaged, our fair fields 
All charred and wasted by the flames of hate. 135 

Girl: I cannot help my weeping when I think 

Of colored windows with their holy scenes, 



458 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Angels white and golden under skies 
As blue as Mary's robe of innocence, 
Shattered for sport by madmen's turbulence. 
And just before I fled to you I saw 
An altar window of our Shepherd King 
Bidding the little ones of earth to come 
And rest upon His bosom. Morning light 
Was pouring through it in a radiant flood, 
And as I looked and worshiped I beheld 
One of the Hill Men swaggering to my side ; 
And when he saw the window I adored 
He stooped and with gruff laughter raised a stone 
Which higher still he held, prepared to throw. 
Seeing his plan I struck aside his arm 
And begged him not to desecrate his God; 
But with an oath he flung me off and hurled 
Straight through the tender Shepherd and His 

babes 
That rgck of blasphemy — and then he laughed. 
Threw me to earth, and spat upon my face. 
Lad: I saw them driving women through the streets 
And lashing them with rawhides made for beasts. 

[He drops his voice.] 

And babes that clung with frightened arms about 

Their mothers' necks were sabered through the 
wrists. 

And little hands, still clasped, fell to the earth. 
Girl: One baby, like an innocent young Christ, 

Was crucified upon a temple door — 
Victor: Oh, cease! The blood of manhood in my veins 

Bursts in a torrent and submerges me. 

Men ! women ! — all of you who pray for peace 

And say this is no problem of our own! — 



THE FIERY PILLAR 459 

Is this a time to draw around our hearths 
And idle there in safety? 

[Murmurs from the crowd.] 

Do the cries 
Of these our neighbors fall on statues' ears ? 170 

[Shouts of "No!"] 
^ Shall we have purring comfort at the price 
Of letting these our brothers die betrayed? 

["No! No!"] 
Shall babes be mutilated out of sport 
And crucified in ribald mockery? 

[Waves of protest, subdued but intense, start at the edge of the crowd 
and sweep over its entire length.] 

Where is our manhood ?* Where our dream of 1:5 
life? 

[Murmurs.] 
War for the sake of war is spawn of hell, 
But if with selfless purpose we go forth 
To save the holy cause of brotherhood, 
Then do we dedicate ourselves to truth 
And make a consecration out of war. iso 

Men! women! Are you slaves? 

[Protests ripple the crowd.] 

Or are you free?* 
[' ' Free I free I We are free ! ' ' tfie people shout. ] 
What is our life if lived ingloriously ? 
And what is death if gladly ventured on? 
And if we die in this supreme crusade. 
Like champions victorious we shall sleep. 135 

O Sleep! Why should we fear you — ^ noble 

Sleep, 
Bringing immortal dreams of Brotherhood! 



46o THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

{"Let us fight for truth! Let us die for truth! War! War!" even 
those who had plead for peace joining with shouts of *^ Brotherhood ! 
Stand by our brothers!"] 

Chief: Hush, comrades! I can see that all would urge 
The prosecution of this righteous cause. 
If there be one who doubts, let him stand forth 
And utter now his protest. 

[Silence.] 

It is well. 

In union do we recognize our strength 

And spell the name of country. 
Lad : I would live, 

O God, to show that I am of a race 

Eternal in its memory of good. 
Girl : And let me serve these brothers all. my days 

As hostage to my deathless gratitude. 
Chief : Now must we choose a leader. 

I Cries of ' ' You shall lead us ! You shall be our leader !"] 

Unprepared 
Are we to meet this sudden call to arms. 
Wrapped in the long, sweet lethargy of peace, 
No thought of battle had forecast its shade. 

[Renewed cries of "You shall lead us! You shall be our leader!"] 

Not SO. I '11 fight beside you till the end ; 
But I am old, and not of that staunch mold 
Of which a warrior's fashioned. First we've 

need 
To choose a valiant watchword, and a sign. 
An emblem, we may follow to the death. 
Oh, pour your hearts in this inspiring task. 
And when the right word 's spoken we shall know : 
'Twill leap a fiery pillar to the skies! 



THE FIERY PII,LAR 461 

[Cheers greet him.] 
No laggards, you ! Speak out the eager thought 210 
That burns its bright insistence in your minds. 
The hand of God may trace that sudden kindHng. 

[Murmurs sweep the crowd. Malcolm steps forward.] 

Malcolm: Strength is the watchword I would choose 
for all, 
Strength that shall bear us through the bat- 
tle's stress 
And to the goal victorious. For a sign, 215 

A pennant blue as heaven that shall be 
The strength of that same heaven for our 
needs. 

[He strips a blue scarf from his neck. Cries from the crowd.] 

Chief: Well spoken, Malcolm. 

A Woman : Let us go to war 

Shouting, ''A righteous cause! A righteous 

cause!'' 
And white shall be our banner — white as 220 

snow, 
A banner clean, unspotted from the world. 
[She seizes her white scarf and waves it. Shouts from the people.] 

Chief: Without the binding tie of loyalty 

Our efforts all were useless. I would say, 

Loyalty forever, and the sign 

The watchful, steadfast, never-fading stars. 225 

[He takes from about his neck the chain of stars. Cries of ^^ Loyalty! 
Loyalty!''] 

Sarah : O men and women ! Let us wash ourselves 

Pure in the cleansing blood of sacrifice. 
Blood-red be our banner, and our cry 
* * Self-sacrifice ! Self-sacrifice ! ' ' 



462 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

[The cry is taken up and repeated as Sarah waves aloft her scarf of 
crimson. Victor stands forth and looks with seeing eyes beyond. 
A hush descends upon the people. Out of the silence he speaks.] 

Victor: 'Tis plain. 

230 As if I saw it written on the walls 

Encompassing the earth, I see a word 
Gleaming with fires impossible to quench. 
Like as an eagle free and unafraid 
That has the whole of space to venture in, 

235 So does the word command us, free and brave. 

To venture where our stricken brother calls. 
Upon this fearless standard let us float 
The crimson glory of self-sacrifice ; 

[Draws Sarah's scarf through an opening beneath the eagle which 
surmounts his spear end.] 

The snowy pureness of a righteous cause ; 

[Takes the white scarf from the Woman and adds it to the crimson 

streamer.] 

The ageless, tireless strength of heaven's blue; 
[Malcolm's scarf follows the others.] 
240 And to these colors add the loyal stars. 

Serene and undiminished in their fires. 
[Takes the Chief's chain of stars and slips it over the eagle.] 
See yonder, O ye people ! See the word 
Emblazoned on the reaches of the sky. 
The sum of all these emblems — Liberty! 

[A great cry rises from the hearts of the people. ''Lead the way ! Victor ! 
Victor 1 Lead the way!" they shout; the lads with the drums and fifes 

sound their martial music, and Victor, with his shield and the 

new-born flag of liberty, leads the way.] 

[Curtain.] 



I 



PEACE WITH A SWORD 

A Musical Interpretation of America in the War, 
suggested and arranged by osbourne mcconathy 
with connecting narrative by louise ayres garnett 



81 



O Peace, thou 
His dreams! 



art of God, horn of 



PEACE WITH A SWORD 

America Henry Carey (?) 

American Patriotic Hymn 
My country, 'tis of thee, 
Sweet land of liberty, 

Of thee I sing; 
Land where my fathers died, 
Land of the Pilgrims' pride. 
From every mountain side 

Let freedom ring. 

My native country, thee. 
Land of the noble free. 

Thy name I love; 
I love thy rocks and rills, 
Thy woods and templed hills. 
My heart with rapture thrills. 

Like that above. 

Let music swell the breeze. 
And ring from all the trees 

Sweet freedom's song; 
Let mortal tongues awake, 
Let all that breathe partake. 
Let rocks their silence break. 

The sound prolong. 

Our fathers' God, to Thee, 
Author of liberty. 
To Thee we sing; 

V 465 



466 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Long may our land be bright 
With freedom's holy light, 
Protect us by Thy might, 
Great God, our King! 

—Samuel F. Smith 



And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. 

And the world grew and the men of earth divided them- 
selves into nations, and each nation strove in that light 
according to its understanding. 

And so it was that in the midst of purple vineyards 
and smiling slopes, beside seas of lazuli, a people, sure 
of its powers and triumphing in its destiny, sang 



Garibaldi's Hymn Melody attributed to Olivieri 

Italian National Hymn 

All forward to battle ! the trumpets are crying, 
All forward ! all forward ! our old flag is flying, 
When Liberty calls us we linger no longer; 
Rebels come on! tho' a thousand to one! 
Liberty ! Liberty ! deathless and glorious, 
Under thy banner thy sons are victorious. 
Free souls are valiant, and strong arms are stronger, 
God shall go with us, and battle be won. 

Hurrah for our banner, the flag of the free ! 

All forward to conquer ! Where free hearts are beating, 
Death to the coward who dreams of retreating ! 
Liberty calls us from mountain to valley ; 
Waving her banner she leads to the fight. 
Forward! all forward! the trumpets are crying; 



i 



PEACE WITH A SWORD 467 

The drum beats to arms, our old flag is flying; 
Stout hearts and strong hands around it shall rally, 
Forward to battle, for God and the right. 

Hurrah for our banner, the flag of the free ! 



Another people, upstanding and self-confident, bound 
by many waters whereon its vessels ruled the waves of the 
ivorld, sang fearlessly and certainly 



Rule, Britannia! Dr. Thomas Augustine Arne 

English Patriotic Song 

When Britain first, at Heav'n's command. 
Arose from out the azure main. 
This was the charter of the land, 
And guardian angels sung this strain : 

Rule, Britannia! rule the waves; 

Britons never will be slaves. 



The muses, still with freedom found. 
Shall to thy happy coast repair; 
Blest Isle! with matchless beauty crown'd. 
And manly hearts to guard the fair. 

Rule, Britannia! rule the waves; 

Britons never will be slaves. 

— Thomson 



And a nation sanguine of spirit, blithe of heart, proud 
of its past, assured of its morrow, wove brillant patterns and 
flung them from tower and turret, shouting invincibly 



468 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

The Marseillaise Rouget de Lisle 

French National Hymn 

Ye sons of France, awake to glory! 
Hark ! Hark ! what myriads bid you rise ! 
Your children, wives, and grandsires hoary. 
Behold their tears and hear their cries ! 
Shall hateful tyrants, mischiefs breeding, 
With hireling hosts, a ruffian band. 
Affright and desolate the land. 
While peace and liberty lie bleeding? 

To arms, to arms, ye brave! 

Th' avenging sword unsheath! 

March on, all hearts resolved 

On victory or death. 

— Rouget de Lisle 

And yet another nation, young and dauntless, glad and 
swift of foot, strong and eager of hand, whose existence 
was builded on the love of peace and hospitality to brother- 
nations, sang exultantly, and with the surety of youth 

The Star-Spangled Banner John Stafford Smith 

American National Anthem 

O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light. 

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming, 

Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro' the perilous 

fight, 
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? 
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
Gave proof thro' the night that our flag was still there. 
O say does that Star-Spangled Banner yet wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? 



PEACE WITH A SWORD 469 

O thus be it ever when freemen shall stand 
Between their lov'd homes and the war's desolation! 
Blest with vict'ry and peace, ma}?- the heav'n-rescued land 
Praise the pow'r that hath made and preserved us a 

nation ! 
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just, 
And this be our motto: "In God is our Trust." 

And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave! 

— Francis Scott Key 



So sang these peoples, happy in the pride of self-assur- 
ance, expectant of to-morrow's rhythmic dawn and the 
healing round of night. And the earth was washed green 
and fair by the waters of peace, and the Christ-message, 
like a great dove, brooded over all and gave the comfort 
of its wings. 



God So Loved the World (The Crucifixion) Stainer 

God so loved the world 

That He gave his only begotten Son, 

That whoso believeth in Him should not perisn. 

But have everlasting life. 

For God sent not His Son into the world 

To condemn the world. 

But that the world through Him might be saved. 



And from budding bush to heaven, like the golden trail 
of a song-bird, mounted the buoyant cry of faith. 



470 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

The Year's at the Spring Mrs. H. H. A. Beach 

Soprano Solo 

The year's at the spring 
And day's at the mom; 
Morning's at seven, 
The hill-side's dew-pearled; 
The lark's on the wing; 
The snail 's on the thorn : 
God's in his heaven — 
All 's right with the world ! 

— Robert Browning 



Then did hell open and rend the earth with its thunders 
oj savage greed, shivering the mirror-brightness of day 
with the lust of hate, the clamor for dominion. Black 
clouds with blood-red linings swept across the sun. The 
armored fist of the Hun smote the unsuspecting bodies of 
its brothers, splashing crimson patterns on the garments 
of peace. To the cries of Crucify him! Crucify him! the 
Christ of Nations was martyred on the cross; and the 
Hun scourged his naked body with ropes of torn treaties, 
and offered him the gall of mockery to drink, and crowned 
him immortally with a crown of thorns. To the ends of 
earth was flung the arrogant challenge of Teutonic power, 
and from the cannon's throat came the defiance of a half- 
century of hostile preparation. The earth was stunned 
and looked upon its Judas with bewildered eyes, reaching 
toward the sun obscured by bloody clouds of war. And 
Germany laughed and marched its millions of waiting 
men across the neighboring borders. 

So began the conflict of the pagan god against the living 
Christ. 



PEACE WITH A SWORD 



471 



The Challenge of Thor (King Olaf) ..... Edward Elgar 



I am the God Thor, 
I am the War God, 
I am the Thunderer ! 
Here in my northland, 
My fastness and fortress, 
Reign I forever! 

Here amid icebergs 
Rule I the nations; 
This is my hammer, 
Miolner the mighty; 
Giants and sorcerers 
Cannot withstand it ! 

These are the gauntlets 
Wherewith I wield it, 
And hurl it afar off; 
This is my girdle ; 
Whenever I brace it. 
Strength is redoubled ! 



The light thou beholdest 
Stream through the heavens, 
In flashes of crimson, 
Is but my red beard 
Blown by the night-wind, 
Affrighting the nations ! 

Jove is my brother; 
Mine eyes are the lightning; 
The wheels of my chariot 
Roll in the thunder; 
The blows of my hammer 
Ring in the earthquake ! 

Force rules the world still. 
Has ruled it, shall rule it ; 
Meekness is weakness. 
Strength is triumphant. 
Over the whole earth 
Stillisit Thor's-day! 



Thou art a God too, 
O Galilean! 

And thus single-handed 
Unto the combat, 
Gauntlet or Gospel, 
Dare I defy thee! 

— H.W.Longfellow 



The world awoke from its dream of peace and answered 
that pagan cry. Its soul shook off its bewilderment and 
arose tall and strong to look upon its foe. And it saw 



472 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

that its dream of peace, to be established on the eternal 
hills, must be bought by the untrafficked gold of spirits 
unafraid and deaths triumphant. 

But America, the young, recoiled before the shock of 
arms and clung to her ideal of civilization and brother- 
hood. She hoped that her youth need not be mown by 
the machines of destruction, that the backs of her men 
need not be bowed by the sins of the lawless, that the 
hearts of her mothers and fathers need not be racked by 
the supreme sacrifice. But even as she was clinging to 
her old ideal, the foe of the world invaded the open sea 
and took wanton toll of her people, setting a bloody seal 
on many a home. 

Then did America know that she must take up her 
burden and consecrate herself to service. And she saw 
that only the blood of self-sacrifice could make clean the 
rape of hate and tyranny, and that her peace and the peace 
of the world could be earned only with the sword. 



Peace with a Sword Mabel W. Daniels 

Peace ! how we love her and the good she brings 

On broad, benignant wings! 

And we have clung to her, how close and long 

While she has made us strong. 

Now we must guard her lest her power cease 

And in the harried world be no more peace, 

Ev'n with a sword. 

Help us, O Lord! 

For us no patient peace, the weary goal of a war-sickened 

soul. 
No peace bought for us by the martyred dead of countries 

reeking red. 



PEACE WITH A SWORD 473 

No peace flung to us from a tyrant's hand 

Sop to a servile land, 

No peace bending the knees before a calf of gold 

With nerveless fingers impotent to hold 

The freeman's sword 

Not this, O Lord! 

America's strong arm holds high and free 
That "placid Peace we seek in liberty," 
Yea, with a sword 
Help us, O Lord! 

Unfurl the banners that defied a king. 

Then tattered colors bring 

That made a nation one from sea to sea 

In godly liberty. 

Unsheath the patriot steel in time of need, 

America, forth your armies lead ! 

Peace with a sword ! 

Help us, O Lord! 

— Abbie Far well Brown 



And so America, glad and swift of foot and strong and 
eager of hand, dedicated to justice, fraternity and the 
pursuit of happiness, shod her feet with enduring brass 
and unsheathed her sword that the enemy of God and man 
might be conquered and redeemed. She fired her forges 
until the sky was aglow, and with her hammers wrought 
sternly for her hosts; she tilled her fields that a starving 
world might be fed; she launched her ships that her treas- 
ury of men and munitions and brimming grain-sacks 
might bear their message of salvation; she leaped into the 
trenches to fight the good fight, not to lay down arms until 
is proven the mastership of right. Her singing armies 



474 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

have gone forth to join the chorus of the valorous and free, 
and more stirring than the songs of many nations is the 
one song of democracy for all. 

Song of Deliverance ^ Samuel Coleridge-Taylor 

Clang, clang, clang rings the challenge 
And it echoes round the wide world's girth, 
For America is blazoning her forges. 
She is fashioning defenses for the earth. 
Clang, clang, clang rings the challenge 
That shall prove her valor and her worth. 

Deep, deep, deep drive the ploughshare 

That deliverance take root in the loam. 

America is sowing in gladness 

In the faith of a harvest that shall come. 

Deep, deep, deep drive the ploughshare: 

Feed the world and defend the hearths of home. 

Sail, sail, sail through the darkness 
* 'Mid the perils of a foe-swept sea, 
America is sending forth her armies 
As a pledge to the world that is to be. 
Sail, sail, sail through the darkness 
To the dawn of a universe made free. 

Fight, fight, fight in the trenches. 

Struggle onward o'er the crimson sod, 

For America is terrible with purpose 

As she smites with the sacrificial rod. 

Fight, fight, fight in the trenches. 

There are strong men fighting for their God. 

— Louise Ayres Garnett 



1 Reprinted by permission of the Oliver Ditson Company, publishers 
of the words and music. 



PEACE WITH A SWORD 475 

To a war-wearied world comes the vision of Peace 
roaming the eternal hills, the light of love in her face, 
the gift of healing in her hands. 

Peace, thou art of God, born of His dreams! 

Lovely Appear (The Redemption) Charles Gounod 

Soprano Solo and Chorus 
Lovely appear over the mountains 

The feet "of them that preach, and bring good news of 
peace. 

Ye mountains, ye perpetual hills, bow ye down. 
Over the barren wastes shall flowers now have possession. 
Dark shades of ancient days, full of hate and oppression, 
In the brightness of joy fade away and are gone. 

In this age, truly blest more than ages preceding. 
Shall the com never fail from the plentiful ground ; 
Under the shining sky shall the lambs gaily bound ; 
Void of fear, undisturbed, safely shall they be feeding; 
Then the timorous doves, wheresoever they fly, 
Shall not fear any more the' hawk's merciless cry. 

Lovely appear over the mountains 

The feet of them that preach, and bring good news of 
peace. 

From the lips of nations ascends a prayer of worship 
glorifying the Father of all men, the Brother of all men, the 
Comforter of all men, for even as it has always been, so 
shall it ever be. 

Gloria Patri G. B. da Palestrina 

Gloria patri et filio, et spiritui sancto. Amen. 



476 THE WORLD AND DEMOCRACY 

Now is the heart of man grown great with rejoicing as 
he lifts it up to the God of Fulfilment, for he has recog- 
nized the imperishable kingdom and is partaker of its 
everlastingness. And spacious as the skies is his spirit, 
for he knows, he knows, that his Redeemer liveth! 

Hallelujah Chorus (The Messiah) G. F. Handel 

Hallelujah! 

For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. 

THE KINGDOM OF THIS WORLD IS BECOME 

THE KINGDOM OF OuR LoRD AND OF HiS ChRIST; 

And He shall reign forever and ever. 

King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Hallelujah ! 



THE APPENDIX 
MAPS AND NOTES 



i 



1 ^^^^'■fiOi^^'^'O^ 



I Great 
]Varnioutl» 

S i/ -^ . iiaarle 

(4 

fAMflurgh 










.^lau!Ji<.5<.„"iCo:V— ^,cf ;^;'r>-s-, — ^JSiLmiiu-'"^^ .,/V<^ulA'" ^-"^litevsloli 






Battle line, ^'nAo^^ ""^^"A ^^^'^^''^WltLoJ/--^^^^ J)gOJTonb.i;r^ 

Sc-pt 8. 1914 /^^oye^ \AE'^K^i^tKt7rSi^ 



Hindenburg line 

««««« German's second 

advance, 
coaae July 18 1918 
Final battle line. 
^ Nov. 11,1918 
§IS^^ Neutral zone 

fR\ fR\ Bridge heads 



Jl TosfsrJ- 



?»T"' 






Bodcn] 

5 



I. THE WESTERN BATTLE FRONT 

According to the terms of the armistice. Germany agreed to evacuate all territory 
from the final battle line to the eastern edge of the neutral zone. 



479 




i^^ HAUTE S 
-L 



Taken by 

* Germany 

etained 

France 



nim [Retained by 






D U B S /SWITZERLAND 



II. ALSACE-LORRAINE BEFORE AND AFTER 187I 
By the Treaty o£ Frankfort, signed Majr 10, ^S?!. following the defeat of Fra^^^^^ 
Germany secured about one-third of Lorraine and all of Alsace with the exception 
of the fortress of Belfort and surrounding territory 23S square miles in extent. 



480 




Principal routes by rail to the "East 
Railroads not completed 
Steamship routes 



III. MITTEL-EUROPA 

The map shows the nearest approach (June, 191 8) to a realization of the Pan- 
German dream of Mittel-Europa. With the advance of the British and Arabs in 
Asiatic Turkey, the structure which the Germans had erected collapsed. 



481 




IV. GERMANY S BLOCKADE ZONES 

The shaded areas show the blockade zones as announced by Germany, Janu- 
ary 31, 191 7. Lanes were provided for neutral ships, one (A) leading to Falmouth, 
and the other (B) leading to Greek territorial waters. Because of this announcement, 
the German ambassador to the United States was handed his passports on February 3, 



4S2 




lis 

-§•2 « 

0) o 

o r B 
a "2 

^x: a, 
0+-' ?; 



^3 ^ - 

C 4) 

u o " c 
G c o w 

H < « =2 

pa 'O lU r; 

exits 

13 

H 

w 

H 



5n.9 



.1.^^ 






2f J? 






fill! 



a-5 



483 




■goXtolio^Ci 



Arg 
ISK 



K-usb Adasi 



Battle line. Nov. 9, 1915 

Battle line.Dec.30, 1915 

Battle line.Dec.30.1916 
onoa Final battle line, 
Sept. 30. 1918 
•••i*i«» Farthest Russo-Rou- 
____^ manian advance 

=Firial Russo-Roumanian 
line, March. 1917 



MnDS^Y. Arsoa. ^.Vi ^ ^ '' ^ \>lt£v, ,8 Samc^:^^ 



vr, 




THE MACEDOxVIAN BATTLE FROXT 



484 




485 



Poland in 1772 

Territory lost to 
" and Sweden 

before 1772 



• •• Pint partition 1772 
SS Second partition 1793 
•t-^- Third partition 1795 




VIII. THE PARTITIONS OF POLAND, I772-I795 



Polish boundary. 

177J 
Grand Duchy of 



Taken by Russia. 




IX. THE GRAND DUCHY OF WARSAW AND ITS FINAL DISPOSITION 

The Grand Duchy of Warsaw was erected by Napoleon and at his downfall 
became the prey of Russia, Prussia, and Austria. The portion falling to Russia was 
made a kingdom under Russian control and remained so until 1831, when it became 
a Russian province. The republic of Cracow was occupied by Austria in 1848. 

486 




The Ukraine 
«aM <■• Provincial 

boundaries 
^ SS Province of 

Archangel under 
^^^^ allied control 
'•*'"•* Railroads 



X. Russia's endangered provinces 

The shaded area includes the provinces under German political and military 
control. Vitebsk, Minsk, Mohilev, and portions of Smolensk and Pskov were outside 
the treaty boundaries, but were overrun and held under control by the German armies 
to secure the resources of the region. 



487 




488 




489 




490 



THE NOTES 

The " Introductory" chapters to the sections of this book, together 
with the head-notes in Parts I and II, constitute the main thing 
attempted in the way of annotation and interpretation. The notes 
that follow are biographical and occasional. They ofTer a con- 
siderable body of material that may help in following an author's 
meaning, and where they do not help they may be disregarded. 

Page 9. Americanism 

Hartley Burr Alexander was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, in 1873; 
graduated at the University of Nebraska; later studied at the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania and at Columbia University. For some 
years he was engaged in editorial work on the New International 
Encyclopaedia and on Webster's Dictionaries. He has been professor 
of philosophy in the University of Nebraska since 1908. He has 
written a number of very illuminating discussions which interpret 
various phases of the meaning of America's position in the present 
affairs of the world. These essays have been published under the 
title Liberty and Democracy (Boston: Marshall Jones Co.). 

67. Mason and Dixon's Line, the disputed boundary line between 
the state of Pennsylvania and the states of Maryland and Virginia 
— the border line between the free and the slave states — fixed by 
Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon, English mathematicians and 
surveyors employed for the purpose, between 1763 and 1767. In 
the debates on slavery before the admission of Missouri, John 
Randolph used the words "Mason and Dixon's line" as figurative 
of the division between the two systems of labor. The press and 
the politicians echoed it; and in that connection it was used until 
the destruction of slavery by the Civil War. 

73. Alexander de Tocqueville (1805-1859), French statesman and 
author, wrote a famous book called Democracy in America. It 
gives a most sympathetic account of, and defense of, the methods 
of government in this country. 

79. The Holy Alliance was a league formed in 181 5 by the sov- 
ereigns of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, afterward joined by all the 
sovereigns of Europe with the exception of those of Rome and Eng- 
land. Its professed object was to unite the nations in a Christian 

491 



492 THE NOTES 

brotherhood, but its real purpose was to prevent changes that threat- 
ened the ruling dynasties. Spain, in 1 823, demanded the assistance of 
the league in securing the return of her revolting colonies in South 
America. This action, together with Russian activity looking 
toward further colonization with Alaska as a nucleus, called forth 
from the United States the statement of the Monroe Doctrine. 

94. The tremendous increase in the number of immigrants from 
Europe in recent years has led to much agitation for some sort of 
restriction. No very generally acceptable plan of solving the 
problem has yet been found. At present there are about 13,000,- 
000 foreign born in the United States and about 18,000,000 more 
with parents born abroad, almost one-third of the entire population. 
The open-door principle does not apply to immigrants from China 
and Japan. This limitation is carried out by a Chinese Exclusion 
Act and by a sort of "gentleman's agreement" with Japan. 

132. In a speech before the Illinois Republican State Convention, 
at Springfield, June 16, 1858, Lincoln said, " * A house divided against 
itself cannot stand. ' I believe this government cannot endure per- 
manently, half slave and half free. " 

180. This penetrating phrase and those in the next paragraph are 
well-known expressions in President Wilson's "War Message." 

Page 16. American Tradition 

Franklin Knight Lane was born near Charlottetown, Prince 
Edward Island, Canada, July 15, 1864. He was educated at the 
University of California and practiced law in San Francisco. From 
1905 to 19 1 3 he was a member of the Interstate Commerce Com- 
mission. In 19 13 he became Secretary of the Interior in President 
Wilson's cabinet. He has been especially active in plans for recon- 
struction to follow the war, particularly in plans for returning 
soldiers who wish to go on farms. Secretary Lane's addresses have 
been published in a little volume called The American Spirit (New 
York: Frederick A. Stokes Co.) There are a baker's dozen of these 
splendidly idealistic speeches) and they are full of the finest inspira- 
tion. Three of them, in part or in full, are included in this text. 

I ff. In reading the opening paragraphs, keep in mind that this 
address was made on Washington Day (February 22, 19 12) at the 
University of Virginia. A speaker from the far West, the newest 
part of our country, addresses an audience of one of the oldest parts 
of our country. The conservatism naturally expected of the old, 
and the radicaHsm naturally expected of the new, at once suggest 



THE NOTES 493 

themselves as forming a barrier between speaker and audience. 
This barrier the speaker destroys by means of two admirable 
stories illustrating the fanatical extremes of the two points of view, 
thus suggesting a meeting ground in the domain of reasonableness. 

80 fif. Magna Charta was signed by King John at Runnymede, near 
Windsor, June 15, 12 15. It gave various important rights to all 
classes of freemen. Marcus Junius Brutus took part in the con- 
spiracy leading to the assassination of Julius Ceesar in 44 B.C. 
Charles Martel (c. 690-741) defeated the Saracens on the plains of 
Poitiers in 732. Martin Luther (1483-1546) made his vigorous 
defense of his doctrines before the Diet of Worms, April, 1521. 
For the Columbus incident, read Joaquin Miller's "Columbus." 

89. The Melting Pot is a name given to the United States with ref- 
erence to its open-door policy of receiving the oppressed of all nations 
and merging them into a nation of common language and political 
ideals. 

107 ff. The illustrations in this paragraph seem even more signifi- 
cant in the light of the great war. In England the land has been held 
by a comparatively few great landlords. The German people seem 
likely to emerge from the war with supreme power over the military 
class. Portugal became a republic as the result of a revolution in 
19 10. The Douma,^a Russian parliament or council of state, 
was created in 1905. Since it could be dissolved at the will of the 
Czar, its efforts to introduce constitutional government in Russia 
came to nothing. Morgan Wright Shuster, an American, became 
treasurer- general of Persia in 191 1. Opposition of some of the 
great powers to his plans for regenerating the country led to his 
resignation after eight months. Mr. Shuster tells his own story 
in his book The Strangling of Persia. Delhi was made the capital 
of India in place of Calcutta, in December, 19 10. Marco Polo, 
celebrated Venetian traveler, spent several years in China in the 
latter part of the thirteenth century, afterward relating his romantic 
story in his famous The Book of Marco Polo. 

135. Rembrandt (1607-1669) was a celebrated Dutch painter, the 
leader of what is known as the Dutch school of painting. As the 
reference in the text shows, he was remarkable for his power in 
handling light and shadow, technically known as chiaroscuro. 

179 f. This quotation from Pope's "Essay on Man" is the expres- 
sion of that extreme conservatism which opposes all change. The red 
flag is the symbol of revolution, which is likely to run through 
certain stages of excess before settling down into order. 



494 THE NOTES 

197. See Exodus, xxiv, 12. 

247. Rasselas is the hero of Dr. Samuel Johnson's History of Rasse- 
las, Prince of A hyssinia. The story gives an account of a vain search 
over the world for happiness. 

Page 24, The Meaning of the Declaration of Independence 

Woodrow Wilson was born at Staunton, Virginia, December 28, 
1856. He graduated at Princeton University and afterward studied 
at the University of Virginia and at Johns Hopkins University. He 
started the practice of law at Atlanta, Georgia, but soon gave that 
up for teaching, occupying successively professorships at Bryn Mawr, 
Wesleyan University, and Princeton. From 1902, he was for eight 
years president of Princeton University. In 19 10 he was elected 
to the governorship of New Jersey by a large plurality, and by his 
advocacy of many liberal reforms became a national figure. In 19 12 
he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for the presidency 
and elected, thus becoming the twenty-eighth President of the 
United States. In 19 16 he was reelected. His high conception 
of duty, his sincerity, his patience, his advocacy of democratic ideals 
for all lands, have given him very generally the confidence of the 
people in the United States and in other nations as well. President 
Wilson was an author of recognized scholarship and consummate 
style before he became known as a statesman. Among his books 
are Mere Literature, and Other Essays (Boston: Houghton Mifflin 
Co.), The State (Boston: D. C. Heath and Co.), a History of the 
United States (4 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers), and The 
New Freedom (New York: Doubleday, Page and Co.). His mes- 
sages and speeches have been pubHshed in various forms. 

28. The Declaration of Independence is a carefully arranged 
document made up of three main parts: (i) an assertion of funda- 
mental principles, (2) a list of specific instances of "injuries and 
usurpations," (3) the justified conclusion arrived at by the Con- 
gress. Point (2) is the bill of particulars referred to by the President. 

Page 30. The War Message 

[The Committee on Public Information at Washington issued 
under the title The War Message and the Facts Behind It the text of 
the message with elaborate annotations prepared by Professor 
William Steams Davis of the University of Minnesota and his 
colleagues, Professors C. D. Allin and William Anderson. Most 
of the material in the notes below is taken from this publication.} 



THE NOTES 495 

President Wilson always addresses Congress in person. It 
seemed a somewhat startling innovation in method when Congress 
assembled in 19 13 and the President came to the Capitol to deHver 
his message instead of communicating it as had been the custom of 
presidents. Curious persons, upon investigation, found that it 
was probably the original expectation of the fathers that messages 
would be orally delivered. Washington and John Adams, the first 
two presidents, had addressed Congress in person. It seems that 
Thomas Jefferson was a very ineffective public speaker and adopted 
the plan of communication by writing, and subsequent presidents 
followed in his footsteps. It would thus appear that President 
Wilson was simply returning to an old custom which certainly 
makes for brevity and conciseness, and adds dramatic effectiveness. 

5. The duty of the President in such a crisis is to lay the facts 
before Congress and recommend to it the needful action. The Con- 
stitution lays the duty and power of declaring war directly upon 
Congress. The vote of the Senate was 82 to 6 for war; of the House, 
373 to 50. The joint resolution declaring war — effective April 6, 
1917, at 1. 18 P.M. — was as follows: 

''Whereas, The Imperial German Government has committed 
repeated acts of war against the Government and the people of the 
United States of America; therefore, be it 

"Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United 
States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war 
between the United States and the Imperial German Government 
which has been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally 
declared; and that the President be, and he is hereby, authorized 
and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the 
United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war 
against the Imperial Government; and to bring the conflict to a 
successful termination all the resources of the country are hereby 
pledged by the Congress of the United States." 

8. The German Chancellor frankly admitted that this policy 
involved " ruthlessness " toward neutrals. "When the most ruth- 
less methods are considered the best calculated to lead us to vic- 
tory and to a swift victory .... they must be employed. 
.... The moment has now arrived. Last August [when he was, 
as he himself here admits, allowing the American people to believe 
that in response to its protest he had laid aside such ruthless methods] 
the time was not yet ripe, but to-day the moment has come when, with 
the greatest prospect of success, we can undertake this enterprise." 

33 



496 THE NOTES 

19. The broken "Sussex" pledge: The "Sussex" was an English 
channel boat from Folkestone to Dieppe. It was attacked by a 
submarine, March 24, 19 16, and eighty of its passengers were killed 
or injured, two of these being Americans. On May 4, 19 16, the 
German Government, in reply to the protest and warning of the 
United States following the sinking of the "Sussex," gave this 
promise: That "merchant vessels both within and without the 
area declared a naval war zone shall not be sunk without warning, 
and without saving human lives, unless the ship attempt to escape 
or offer resistance." 

Germany added, indeed, that if Great Britain continued her 
blockade policy, she would have to consider "a new situation." 

On May 8, 19 16, the United States replied that it could not admit 
that the pledge of Germany was "in the slightest degree contingent 
upon the conduct of any other Government" (i. e., on any question 
of the English blockade). To this Germany made no reply at all, 
and under general diplomatic usage, when one nation makes a 
statement to another, the latest statement of the case stands as 
final unless there is a protest made. 

The promise made by Germany thus became a binding pledge. 

29. As to the proper usages in dealing with merchant vessels in 
war, here are the rules laid down some time ago for the American 
navy, and these rules hardly differed in other navies, including the 
Russian and Japanese: 

" The personnel of a merchant vessel captured as a prize . . . . 
are entitled to their personal effects. 

"All passengers not in the service of the enemy, and all women 
and children on board such vessels, should be released and landed 
at a convenient port at the first opportunity. 

"Any person in the naval service of the United States who pillages 
or maltreats in any manner any person found on board a merchant 
vessel captured as a prize shall be severely punished." 

"If a seized neutral vessel cannot for any reason be brought into 
court for adjudication it should be dismissed." 

"The destruction of a vessel which has surrendered without first 
removing its officers and crew would be an act contrary to the sense 
of right which prevails even between enemies in time of war." 

36 ff. The British hospital ships "Asturias" and the "Gloucester 
Castle" had been sunk although protected by the most solemn 
possible of international compacts. Somewhat earlier in the war 
the great liner "Britannic" had been sunk while in service as a 



THE NOTES 497 

hospital ship, and the evidence seems to be that it was torpedoed 
by a U-boat. Several hospital ships were sunk after the date of 
the message. 

The Belgian relief ships referred to were probably the "Camilla," 
"Trevier," and "Feistein," but most particularly the large Nor- 
wegian steamer "Storstad," sunk with 10,000 tons of grain for 
the starving Belgians. Other relief ships were attacked. 

66. Even in the most troubled period of the Middle Ages there 
was consistent effort to spare the lives of nonbelligerents. Thus 
in the eleventh century not merely did the church enjoin the "truce 
of God" which ordered all warfare to cease on four days of the week, 
but it especially pronounced its curse upon those who outraged or 
injured not merely clergymen and monks, but all classes of women. 
We also have ordinances from this "dark period" of history for- 
bidding the interference with shepherds and their flocks, the dam- 
aging of olive trees, or the carrying off or destruction of farming 
implements. 

72. Between the date of the German decree of ruthless submarine 
policy (January 31, 191 7) and the date of the message, the following 
ships had been sunk: February 3, 19 17, "Housatonic"; Febru- 
ary 13, 1917, "Lyman M. Law"; March 2, 1917, "Algonquin"; 
March 16, 1917, " Vigilancia "; March 17, 1917, "City of Memphis"; 
March 17, 1917, "Illinois"; March 21, 1917, "Healdton" (claimed 
to have been sunk off Dutch coast, and far from the so-called "pro- 
hibited zone"); April I, 1917, "Aztec." 

In all, up to the declaration of war by the United States, 226 
American citizens, many of them women and children, had lost 
their lives by the action of German submarines, and in most instances 
without the faintest color of international right. The most horrible 
of these wholesale assassinations was in the case of the "Lusitania." 
About 2:00 P.M., on May 7, 1915, this great Cunard liner, on a voy- 
age from New York, with 1,918 persons on board, was sunk without 
notice by the German submarine "U-39," ten miles off Old Head 
of Kinsale. The vessel went down twenty-one minutes after the 
attack, with resultant loss of 1,154 lives, including men, women, 
and children, of whom 114 were Americans. The Berlin Govern- 
ment at first asserted that the "Lusitania" was, "of course, armed"; 
and German agents in New York procured testimony, which was 
subsequently proved in court to have been perjured, to bolster up 
this falsehood. In further justification, the German Government 
adduced the fact that the "Lusitania" was carrying ammunition* 



498 THE NOTES 

which, it said, was "destined for the destruction of brave German 
soldiers." This contention our Government rightly swept aside as 
"irrelevant." The essence of the "Lusitania" case was stated by 
our Government in its note of June 9, as follows: "Whatever be 
the other facts regarding the 'Lusitania,' the principal fact is 
that a great steamer, primarily and chiefly a conveyance for passen- 
gers, and carrying more than a thousand souls who had no part or 
lot in the conduct of the war, was sunk without so much as a chal- 
lenge or a warning, and that men, women, and children were sent 
to their death in circumstances unparalleled in modern warfare." 

74. The United States Government made an official estimate that 
by April 3, 19 17, no less than 686 neutral vessels had been sunk by 
German submarines since the beginning of the war. This did not 
include any American vessels. 

77. Nearly all the civilized neutral countries of the earth protested 
at the German policy. Many broke diploinatic relations with 
Germany, and several followed the United States in declaring war 
against Germany. 

105. In Oxford, 1913, at a meeting of the Institute of Interna- 
tional Law, at which the representatives of Germany, as well as 
of all other great nations, were present, it was decided as a firm 
principle that private vessels may not commit acts of hostility 
against the enemy and that they may defend themselves against 
the attack of an enemy vessel. {American Journal of International 
Law, X, 1916, p. 868.) 

119. The right of American citizens to protection in their doings 
abroad and on the seas no less than at home was decided by the 
Supreme Court of the United States. (Slaughter-House Cases, 
16 Wall., 36.) 

"Every citizen .... may demand the care and protection 
of the United States when on the high seas or within the juris- 
diction of a foreign Government." 

See Cooley's Principles of Constitutional Law, third edition, 
page 273 (standard authority). 

Obviously a government which cannot or will not protect its 
citizens against a policy of lawless murder is unworthy of respect 
abroad or obedience at home. The protection of the lives of the 
innocent and law-abiding is clearly the very first duty of a civilized 
state. 

127. Wars do not have to be declared in order to exist. The 
mere commission of warlike or unfriendly acts commences them. 



THE NOTES 499 

Thus the first serious clash in the Mexican War took place April 24, 
1846. Congress "recognized" the state of war only on May 11 of 
that year. Already General Taylor had fought two serious battles 
at Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma. 

Many other like cases could be cited; the most recent was the 
outbreak of the war between Japan and Russia. In 1904 the 
Japanese attacked the Russian fleet before Port Arthur, and only 
several days after this battle was war "recognized." 

If the acts of Germany were unfriendly, war in the strictest sense 
existed when the President addressed Congress. 

152. This estimate was exceeded many times over after the 
United States decided to throw all its strength into the conflict 
on the side of the Allies. Over two million men were already in 
France by the close of the war, November 11, 1918, and other 
millions were in the training camps at home or under call. 

193 ff. On January 22 Mr. Wilson spoke in favor of a league to 
secure peace. On February 3 he announced he had broken diplo- 
matic relations with Germany, but expressed the earnest hope 
that issues would not proceed to a clash of arms. On February 26 
he asked for "armed neutrality," but still avoided an actual state 
of war. 

207. Contrast these two standards. Bethmann-Hollweg, address- 
ing the Reichstag on August 4, 19 14, said: 

"We are now in a state of necessity, and necessity knows no law. 
Our troops have occupied (neutral) Luxembourg and perhaps already 
have entered Belgian territory. Gentlemen, this is a breach of 
international law. The wrong — I speak openly — the wrong we 
hereby commit we will try to make good as soon as our military 
aims have been attained. 

"He who is menaced as we are, and is fighting for his highest 
possession, can only consider how he is to hack his way through." 

Frederick the Great, the arch prophet of Prussianism, speaking 
in 1740 and giving the keynote to all his successors, said, "The 

question of right is an affair of ministers It is time to 

consider it in secret, for the orders to my troops have been given"; 
and again, "Take what you can; you are never wrong unless you 
are obliged to give back." (Perkins, France under Louis XV, 
I, pp. 169-170.) 

Against this set the words of the first President of the young 
American Republic, speaking at a time when the nation was so 
weak that surely any kind of shifts could have been- justified on 



500 THE NOTES 

the score of necessity. Said George Washington in his first inaugural 
address (1789): 

" . . . . the foundation of our national policy will be laid in 
the pure and immutable principles of private morality, and the 
preeminence of free government be exemplified by all the attributes 
which can win the affections of its citizens and command the respect 
of the world. I dwell on this prospect with every satisfaction which 
an ardent love for my country can inspire, since there is no truth 
more thoroughly established than that there exists in the economy 
and course of nature an indissoluble union between virtue and 
happiness; between duty and advantage; between the genuine 
maxims of an honest and magnanimous policy and the solid rewards 
of public prosperity and felicity; since we ought to be no less per- 
suaded that the propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected 
on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right which 
Heaven itself has ordained ; and since the preservation of the sacred 
fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of govern- 
ment are justly considered, perhaps, as deeply, as finally, staked on 
the experiment intrusted to the hands of the American people." 

218. When the crisis was precipitated late in July, 19 14, there 
was a strong peace party in Germany, and earnest protests were 
made against letting Austrian aggression against Serbia start a 
world conflagration. In Berlin on July 29, twenty-eight mass 
meetings were held to denounce the proposed war, and one of them 
is said to have been attended by 70,000 men. The Vorwaerts (the 
great organ of the socialists) declared on that day, "the indications 
proved beyond a doubt that the camarilla of war lords is working 
with absolutely unscrupulous means to carry out their fearful 
designs to precipitate an international war and to start a world-wide 
fire to devastate Europe." On the 31st this same paper asserted 
that the policy of the German Government was "utterly without 
conscience." Then came the declaration of "war emergency" 
(Kriegsgefahr), mobilization, martial law, and any expression of 
public opinion was stilled in Germany. 

It is clear in the light of later events that this stilling of public 
opinion was not final, and no doubt the constant separation of the 
rulers of Germany from the people of Germany in the speeches of 
President Wilson and of many of the allied spokesmen had much to 
do in encouraging the revolutionary sentiment in Germany. 

250. The great humanitarian aims of The Hague peace confer- 
ences of 1899 and 1907 were the limitation of armaments and the 



THE NOTES 501 

compulsory arbitration of international disputes. Unanimity 
among the world powers was essential to the success of both. None 
dared disarm unless all would do so. The great democracies, Great 
Britain, France, and the United States, favored both propositions, 
but Germany, leading the opposition, prevented their adoption. 
She agreed with reluctance to a convention for optional arbitration, 
but refused at the second conference even to discuss disarmament. 
(See James Brown Scott, The Hague Peace Conferences of iSgg 
and 1907, I, index "Armaments" and "Arbitration.") 

251 ff. At the time the President was speaking, the first stage of 
the revolution in Russia was in progress. The Czar's government 
had been overthrown, and a government of moderate statesmen 
under Prince Lvoff was in control. Since then the changes in Russia 
have been so rapid and marked by such seeming chaos that it is 
difficult for the outside world to estimate correctly the situation. 
The moderates gave way to Kerensky, and he in turn to the Bol- 
sheviki under Lenine and Trotsky, who established a proletariat 
dictatorship. 

268 fif. The House of Representatives Committee on Foreign 
Affairs, when it presented the war resolution following the Presi- 
dent's message, went on formal record as listing at least twenty-one 
crimes or unfriendly acts committed upon our soil with the conniv- 
ance of the German Government since the European war began. 
Among these were: 

Inciting Hindoos within the United States to stir up revolts in 
India, and supplying them with funds for that end, contrary to our 
neutrality laws. 

Running a fraudulent passport office for German reservists. 
This was supervised by Captain von Papen of the German 
Embassy. 

Sending German agents to England to act as spies, equipped with 
American passports. 

Outfitting steamers to supply German raiders, and sending them 
out of American ports in defiance of our laws. 

Sending an agent from the United States to try to blow up the 
International Bridge at Vanceboro, Maine. 

Furnishing funds to agents to blow up factories in Canada. 

Five different conspiracies, some partly successful, to manufacture 
and place bombs on ships leaving United States ports. For these 
crimes a number of persons have been convicted. Consul-General 
Bopp, of San Francisco, a very high German official accredited to 



502 THE NOTES 

the United States Government, has been convicted of plotting to 
cause bridges and tunnels to be destroyed in Canada. 

Financing newspapers in this country to conduct a propaganda 
serviceable to the ends of the German Government. 

Stirring up anti-American sentiment in Mexico and disorders 
generally in that country, to make it impossible for the United 
States to mix in European affairs. 

297. The famous "Zimmermann note" was addressed to the Ger- 
man minister in Mexico by Doctor Zimmermann, the German For- 
eign Minister. It is dated twelve days before Germany announced 
her intention to resume unrestricted submarine warfare. The note 
came into the hands of our Government, and when it was made 
public, Zimmermann admitted its authenticity, and only deplored 
that it had been discovered. Germany's only apology was that 
it did not intend to do anything unless we first declared war. The 
text of the note is as follows: 

Berlin, January 19, 19 17 

On the 1st of February we intend to begin submarine warfare 
unrestricted. In spite of this it is our intention to endeavor to 
keep neutral the United States of America. 

If this attempt is not successful we propose an alliance on the 
following basis with Mexico: That we shall make war together and 
together make peace. We shall give general financial support, 
and it is understood that Mexico is to reconquer the lost territory 
in New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona. The details are left to you for 
settlement. 

You are instructed to inform the President of Mexico of the above 
in the greatest confidence as soon as it is certain there will be an 
outbreak of war with the United States, and suggest that the Presi- 
dent of Mexico on his own initiative should communicate with 
Japan, suggesting at once adherence to this plan; at the same time 
offer to mediate between Germany and Japan. 

Please call to the attention of the President of Mexico that the 
employment of ruthless submarine warfare now promises to compel 
England to make peace in a few months. 

(Signed) Zimmermann 

337. Austria had a serious clash with the United States in the 
"Ancona" case late in 19 15, when Americans perished, thanks to 
the ruthless action of an Austrian submarine. In reply to American 
protests Austria promised to order her commanders to behave with 
humanity, and (compared, at least, to her German allies) she kept 
her word with reasonable exactness. 

On April 8, however, Austria, probably acting under German 
pressure, broke off diplomatic relations with the United States 



THE NOTES 503 

without waiting for action by our Government, and the same was 
done a little later by Germany's other obedient vassal, the Sultan 
of Turkey. 

The United States declared war on Austria December 7, 191 7, 
but the war closed without any declaration of war on the other 
allies of Germany, Turkey and Bulgaria. 

Page 43. Flag Day Address 

In his address on "The Meaning of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence" President Wilson laid great stress on the importance of the 
"bill of particulars" constituting the list of grievances of the 
colonies. The "Flag Day Address " contains such a "bill of particu- 
lars" of our grievances against Germany. Its timeliness rested in 
the necessity of strengthening the general morale of the country 
in the face of the insidious peace propaganda of the German Govern- 
ment, a propaganda designed to secure peace on the basis of what 
Germany held at the moment. 

The student should familiarize himself with maps ill, VI, vii, x, and 
XI in order to follow the analysis of Germany's designs in the East. 
Map III is of special importance in showing the extent of the Pan- 
German scheme. Then follow closely the points of the address in 
the light of some such analysis as the following: 

1. The significance of the flag (lines 1-33). 

What the flag means. 

How it gets this meaning. 

What questions the carrying of the flag into battle forces 
us to answer. 

Why these questions must be squarely faced and satisfac- 
torily answered. 

2. How we were forced into the war (lines 34-64). 

Specific items of German aggression and intrigue. 

3. Germany's military masters responsible for the war (lines 
65-112). 

The position of the German people. 

Why the primary blame rests on Germany's military states- 
men. 
Their attitude toward weaker nations. 
Why this attitude was especially iniquitous. 

4. The Pan-German dream (lines 1 13-140). 

Just what this scheme contemplated. 

Why it could not have been accomplished peacefully. 



504 THE NOTES 

5. The situation in June, 1917 (lines 141-156). 

To what extent Germany had succeeded in her Berlin-to- 
Bagdad plan. 

6. The German cry for peace (lines 157-205). 

Why Germany was so anxious to have peace just then. 
What German success would have meant. 

7. Methods of the German peace propaganda (lines 206-263). 

How carried on in Germany. 

The sinister element in the peace propaganda in the United 

States. 
Why these plans were doomed to fail. 

8. The position of the United States (lines 264-272). 

As a result of studying the entire address, try to state briefly 
and clearly just what was the "one choice" for us. 

Page 51. Program of the World's Peace 

Take the points of this program one by one and try to make clear 
to your own mind how the acceptance of each point as a principle 
would contribute to the assurance of the world's peace. The maps 
will be of great value in understanding the points that deal with 
questions of territory. Points 1-5 and point 14 are of particular 
interest as emphasizing the conditions "necessary to the establish- 
ment of a new international order." 

Page 56. Righteous and Triumphant Force 

58. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed on March 3, 191 8. 
Russia's military power had collapsed during the violent political 
struggles following the revolution in that country. The Bolshevik 
government found it necessary to get Russia out of the European 
War in order that attention might be concentrated on the working 
out of a new social order at home. "By this treaty (which included 
not only Germany but her allies, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, and 
Turkey as well) the Bolshevik government renounced all the terri- 
torial conquests which Russia had made in Europe and Hither Asia 
since the middle of the 17th century. With one stroke of the pen 
the broad band of non-Russian peoples stretching from Finland on 
the Baltic to Transcaucasia on the Black and Caspian Seas was 
declared no longer subject to Russian sovereignty. These terri- 
tories possessed in the aggregate an area of 700,000 square miles 
with a population of 60,000,000 souls. Furthermore, the Bolshevik 
government agreed to leave the ultimate disposition of these 



THE NOTES 505 

territories to the decision of Germany and her allies and pledged itself 
not to conduct any agitation br propaganda in these territories 
against the Central Powers or such local governments as the Central 
Powers might there recognize. In fact, the Bolshevik government 
specifically pledged itself to recognize the existing governments of 
Ukrainia and Finland. Lastly, in a series of annexes to the treaty, 
general stipulations were formulated for the rapid and complete 
reestablishment of economic relations between Russia and the 
Central Powers, details to be worked out by special commis- 
sions in the near future." (Lothrop Stoddard in the Review of 
Reviews.) 

Page 61. The Mount Vernon Address 

Of special interest in this address is the parallel drawn between 
the aims of Washington and his associates and the aims of the 
United States in the present. 

Page 66. The Issues of the War 

The particular point of interest in this address is its insistence 
that the war had become a peoples' war and as such must be fought 
to an issue that will be in the interest of the peoples of the earth. 
Ambitious statesmen must yield up all thought of a conclusion 
that will mean either personal or national aggrandizement at the 
expense of others. As a means to a peace in the interest of peoples, 
the general principles of a scheme for a League of Nations are 
outlined. 

Page 74. Democracy 

James Russell Lowell was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
February 22, 18 19, and died there on August 12, 189 1. He was 
educated at Harvard. He studied law but never practiced it, early 
devoting himself to a literary career. He succeeded Longfellow as 
a professor at Harvard in 1855. His fame as a poet was securely 
established in 1848, in which year he published "A Fable for Critics," 
"The Vision of Sir Launfal," and the first series of "The Biglow 
Papers." Lowell was the first editor of The Atlantic Monthly and 
later for several years one of the editors of The North American 
Review. He served as United States minister to Spain (i 877-1 880) 
and to Great Britain (1880- 1885). His essays and public addresses 
are distinguished by wide and accurate learning, and the capacity 
for appropriate and interesting illustration. "Democracy" may 



506 THE NOTES 

be found entire in Literary and Political Addresses, published as 
Volume VI of the Riverside edition of Lowell's prose works. 

14. Theodore Parker uSio-iSoo") was a prominent New England 
clergyman of pronounced and radical \-iews on political and social 
problems. 

24. Thomas Dekker ^c. 1570-c-, i637'> was one of the old English 
dramatists included in Lowell's lectures on that subject. The 
expression referred to is found in the passage: 

"The best of men 
That e'er wore earth about him, was a sufTerer, 
A soft, meek, patient, humble, tranquil spirit. 
The first true gentleman that ever breathed." 

27. Jellaladeen lived in the thirteenth centur\\ His book, called 
the Mcs?:c:'i, is largely made up of stories illustrating moral 
maxims. 

45. Appenzell has an area of 162 square miles and a population 
of about 70,000. 

55 ff . The progress of the world in remoWng the various limitations 
restricting suffrage has been very marked since Lowell uttered this 
sentence. In many countries women now have the right to vote, 
and other Hmitations than those of sex have been modified, always 
in the direction of greater liberality. 

69. The French undertook to make a clean sweep and to start 
in new with everything based on what they called the rule of reason. 
Not only a new system of government, but a new rehgion and a 
new calendar were adopted. To reinforce what Lowell says about 
the value of tradition, recall some of the points made in Lane's 
"American Tradition." 

89. The stages of the French Revolution seemed to illustrate 
this commonly accepted xnew. Democracy developed into the 
excesses of the Reign of Terror, and the reaction from that enabled 
Napoleon to make his power supreme. This accepted syllogism 
has come to the front recently as a means of explaining some of the 
happenings reported as taking place in Russia. Such explanations 
should always be accepted with caution. 

127. Robert Lowe, Viscoimt Sherbrooke (1811-1892), a promi- 
nent English poHtician, noted for his power of argument and use of 
striking phrases. As Chancellor of the Exchequer from 1S6S to 1873 
in the Gladstone ministry, he was responsible for a number of 
important financial reforms. 



THE NOTES 507 

Page 79. The Problem of Democracy 

Frederic Cook Morehouse was born in Milwaukee. Wisconsin, 
in 1868. He is a prominent religious journalist and author, and 
since 1899 has been the editor of The Living Church, published at 
Milwaukee. 

64. Frederick II (1712-1786), surnamed "The Great," became 
king of Prussia in 1740. In the first half of his reign the nation was 
engaged in almost constant warfare. In 1772 he took part with 
Russia and Austria in the partition of Poland, by which Prussia 
secured a large part of that unhappy country (see map viii). 
Frederick had great military genius, and his skill as an adminis- 
trator placed Prussia among the powerful states of Europe. 

67. Their descendant of Potsdam is, of course, the ex-Kaiser, 
William II. At Potsdam, sixteen miles southwest of Berlin, is the 
royal palace which was used as a summer residence by William. 
Here on July 5, 19 14, it is asserted, a conference of German and 
Austrian dignitaries determined to use the recent assassination of 
the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian throne, as a 
'pretext to crush Serbia. 

70. Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig (1861-) became commander- 
in-chief of the British forces in France and Flanders in 19 15. He 
was with Kitchener at Khartum in 1898, took part in the South 
African War, and served for some years in India. He reached the 
rank of major-general in 1904, lieutenant-general in 19 10, general 
in 19 1 4, and was created field marshal after the Battle of the Somme 
in 19 1 6. His strategic skill in the face of the terrific German 
attacks in the spring of 191 8 and his conduct of the great counter- 
offensive which brought the war to a triumphant conclusion in 
November, 1918, place his name high in the list of the great com- 
manders of the war. 

78. John Joseph Pershing was bom in Linn County, Missouri, 
in i860. He graduated from West Point in 1886 and has since been 
in constant military service. In 19 16 General Pershing was placed 
in command of the force that pursued the bandit Villa into Mexican 
territory. After the United States had declared war against Ger- 
many in 191 7, he was selected to command the American Expedi- 
tionary Force in France. The tremendous problems connected 
with this task called for executive power of the highest kind, and 
General Pershing has met his responsibilities with great tact and 
technical skill. 



5o8 THE NOTES 

Page 82. Autocrac}) against Democracy 

Frederick Dennison Bramhall graduated from the University of 
Chicago in 1902. After three years there as a graduate student, 
he spent one year in the New York State Library as a legislative 
reference librarian. Since 1908 he has been an instructor in political 
science in the University of Chicago. 

Page 84. The Moral Value of Patriotism 

Shailer Mathews was bom at Portland, Maine, in 1863. He 
graduated from Colby College in 1884, attended Newton Theo- 
logical Seminary, studied abroad, and became dean of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago Divinity School in 1908. Doctor Mathews is a 
man of wide intellectual interests, and a writer of unusual clearness 
and force. Our selection is taken from a chapter in his very sug- 
gestive and stimulating book called Patriotism and Religion (New 
York: Macmillan and Co.). 

18. William H. P. Faunce (1859-), an American clergyman and 
educator, has been president of Brown University since 1S99. 

34. Das Deutschtum means the combination of qualities that 
make up Germanism, what we refer to when we speak of the German 
spirit, or the German consciousness. 

77. Napoleon (i 769-1 821) controlled Europe most completely 
about the year 1807. He was the head of a great confederacy of 
states. He had placed a number of his relatives on subordinate 
thrones. The policy of Europe was under his direction. England 
alone stood between him and complete domination. 

104. A social anachronism is a scheme or plan for the organization 
of society that is entirely out of date. 

137. Few words have been more prominently before the public 
eye in recent years than the word Kultur. For that reason the 
following passages are quoted as helps toward determining its 
significance: 

''Kultur is a difhcult word to interpret. It means 'culture' and 
a great deal more besides. Its primary meaning, like that of 
'culture,' is intellectual and aesthetic: when a German speaks of 
kultur he is thinking of such things as language, literature, philos- 
ophy, education, art, science, and the like Culture to a 

German is not only a national possession; it is also, to a degree 
difficult for us to appreciate, a State product. It is a national 
possession deliberately handed on by the State from generation to 
generation, hall-marked and guaranteed, as it were, for the use of 



THE NOTES 509 

its citizens. When we use the word 'culture' we speak of it as an 
attribute of individual men and women. Germans, on the other 
hand, think of it as belonging to nations as a whole, in virtue of 
their system of national education. That is why they are so sure 
that all Germans possess culture. They have all had it at school. 
And it is all the same brand of culture, because no other is taught. 
It is the culture with which the Government wishes its citizens to 
be equipped. That is why all Germans tend, not only to know the 
same facts (and a great many facts too), but to have a similar out- 
look on life and similar opinions about Goethe, Shakespeare, and 
the German navy. Culture, like military service, is a part of the 

State machinery The Prussian system is unsatisfactory, 

firstly, because it confuses external discipline with self-control; 
secondly, because it confuses regimentation with corporate spirit; 
thirdly, because it conceives the nation's duty in terms of 'culture' 
rather than of character." (A. E. Zimmern in The War and Democ- 
racy.) 

" Kultur has come to indicate (since about 1880) the type of 
civilization for which Germany now stands sponsor, thanks mainly 
to the leadership of Prussia. And we have abundant German 
authority for its precise implications. The Kaiser has himself 
struck the keynote of Kultur. 'Great ideals have become for us 
Germans a permanent possession, while other nations have lost 
them. The German nation is now the only people left which is 
called upon to protect, cultivate, and promote these grand ideals.' 
These grand ideals peculiar to Germany are, as stated by one scholar, 
(i) national egotism, founded upon (2) obedience, induced by (a) a 
disciplined bureaucratic autocracy, (b) a disciplinary division into 
social classes wherein every man finds his place, and (c) a disciplinary 
system of professionalized instruction which produces multitudes of 
' efficients ' who labor in every conceivable line of activity ; the whole 
scheme is completely justified by (3) material success and (4) mili- 
tary power; (5) on account of these successes, Germany has the right 
to force this system upon other peoples, who are either to be Ger- 
manized by 'penetration' or compelled to become economic vassals 
of Germany; that is, tools to be used for her 'world supremacy.' " 
(War Cyclopedia.) 

158. Dr. Karl Peters, a well-known German geographer, explorer, 
and authority on colonial matters. He founded German East 
Africa in 1885. He is the author of many books on German colonial 
affairs and on his own discoveries and explorations. 



5IO THE NOTES 

207. The Spanish- American War (1898) was precipitated by the 
destruction of the American battleship "Maine," in Havana harbor 
on February 8, with a loss of 260 lives. The leading events of the 
war were the destruction of the Spanish fleet at Manila by American 
warships under command of Admiral George Dewey (May i); the 
destruction of a Spanish fleet under Admiral Cervera while it was 
attempting to escape from Santiago, by American vessels under 
command of Admirals Sampson and Schley (July 3); and the sur- 
render of the Spanish forces at Santiago to the American army under 
command of General Shafter. By the treaty of peace signed 
December 10, at Paris, the United States secured the Philippines, 
for which a payment of $10,000,000 was made to Spain. 

212 f. In 1863 a Japanese clan undertook to close the strait at 
Shimoneseki connecting the Inland Sea with the outer waters and 
fired upon an American vessel. A combined naval force of Ameri- 
can, British, Dutch, and French vessels proceeded to bombard 
the town in 1864, and an indemnity of $3,000,000 was levied upon 
Japan. The United States held its share of this indemnity ($750,- 
000) unappropriated in the treasury until 1883, when by action of 
Congress it was returned to Japan and used for educational purposes. 
The punitive indemnity from China has reference to the heavy 
indemnity levied as a result of the international expedition made 
necessary in 1900 by the Boxer rebellion. The Boxers were mem- 
bers of an organization which had as its object the destruction or 
expulsion of all foreigners. The United States returned its portion 
of the indemnity to be used for educational purposes. 

Page 91, The Lam of High, Resolute Endeavor 

Theodore Roosevelt, twenty-sixth President of the United States, 
was born October 27, 1858, in New York City. He was educated 
at Harvard and entered politics as a member of the New York 
legislature in 1882. He spent some time as a rancher in North 
Dakota on account of his health. He was one of the Civil Service 
Commissioners under President Cleveland. He organized the 
Rough Riders at the beginning of the Spanish-American War, was 
elected governor of New York in 1899, and vice-president of the 
United States in 1901. Upon the death of President McKinley in 
1 90 1 he succeeded to the presidency, and he was elected for the 
term beginning in 1905. He was awarded the Nobel peace prize 
for his services in connection with the close of the war between 
Russia and Japan. In the campaign of 19 12 he led the Progressive 



THE NOTES 511 

party. Colonel Roosevelt was a voluminous author of books on 
history and politics, on his hunting and exploring trips, and on mis- 
cellaneous subjects of general interest. He was a man of tremen- 
dous energy and multifarious interests, and it is practically impossible 
in any brief account to give an adequate impression of his activities. 
Colonel Roosevelt died suddenly, January 6, 1919, at his home at 
Oyster Bay, Long Island. 

The, speech given to represent Colonel Roosevelt's views is probably 
a little too conservative to make clear the later stages of his thinking. 
He came to advocate stronger legislation in behalf of the workers 
and those without vested interests. 

2. Dr. Lyman Abbott (1835-), American preacher and editor, 
has been for many years the editor-in-chief of the New York Outlook. 
Among his more important books are Christianity and Social Prob- 
lems and The Rights of Man. 

25. One of the best of Colonel Roosevelt's books. The Winnini^ 
of the West, deals with the great movement and type of men analyzed 
in these opening paragraphs. 

155. Americans had not awakened in any complete sense to a 
conception of world duties at the date of this speech. That came 
first with the Spanish-American War, and, later, with the Panama 
Canal and the World War. The doctrine of "splendid isolation," 
so long the theme of patriotic oratory, has given way completely 
to another strain — a strain reflected in the selections composing 
this book. 

224. The use of this old proverb is the basis of the well-known 
association with Colonel Roosevelt's name of the idea of "the big 
stick." Most persons forget the first two words of the proverb — 
which make all the difference in the world. "The big stick," 
"the square deal," and "the strenuous life" are three ideals com- 
monly connected as constituting the Roosevelt doctrine. All three 
of them find expression in this speech. 

382. William Howard Taft (1857-) was the first civil governor 
of the Philippines, serving from 1 901 to 1904. After important pub- 
lic services during the Roosevelt administration, Mr. Taft became 
the twenty-seventh President of the United States (1909- 19 13). 
He has since been professor of law at Yale, and has been actively 
engaged in the work of the League to Enforce Peace.' 

405. The Tagalogs are a Malay people of the Philippines occu- 
pying mainly the middle provinces of the island of Luzon. 

433« Greatheart was the valiant guardian who successfully 
34 



512 THE NOTES 

conducted Christiana and her children through the many difficulties 
of their journey, in the second part of Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. 
Many of the recent eulogists of Colonel Roosevelt have used Great- 
heart as a fitting type of his activity in behalf of the causes he had 
at heart. 

Page III, The Spirit of America 

4. Theodore Judah was born at Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1826. 
He was educated at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy, 
New York. At the age of twenty-nine, he was selected to survey 
the route for the Sacramento Valley Railroad. The needs and 
possibilities of railroads in the West took hold of his mind, and he 
was the active spirit in the meetings that led to the organization, 
in 1 86 1, of the Central Pacific Railroad Company. His death- 
occurred in October, 1863. 

5. Herbert Clarke Hoover was bom at West Branch, Iowa, in 
1874. He was educated at Leland Stanford, Jr., University, and 
entered upon a most successful career as a mining engineer and 
conductor of great mining enterprises. It is impossible to exaggerate 
the wonderful work done by his organizing genius as chairman of the 
Commission for Relief in Belgium and, after our own country 
entered the war, as Food Administrator for the United States. 
Great campaigns for the production, conservation, and distribution 
of food were conducted. Our Allies and the neutral nations were 
provisioned. Mr. Hoover's belief in voluntary action rather than 
in drastic regulation, except in cases of absolute necessity, was 
justified by the almost universal support given his efforts by the 
people. After the signing of the armistice in November, 19 18, 
Mr. Hoover proceeded to Europe to continue his work as the head 
of an international commission for the feeding of that continent. 

6. Collis Potter Huntington (i 821-1900) was, at the time of his 
death, "president of twenty-six corporations, with over 9,000 miles 
of railroad track and 5,000 miles of steamboat line." Leland 
Stanford (i 824-1 893) was governor of California, United States 
Senator, and founder of Leland Stanford, Jr., University as a memo- 
rial to his only son. Charles Crocker (i 822-1 888) was born at 
Troy, New York, spent some years on a farm in Indiana, and 
achieved great business success in California following the discovery 
of gold. Mark Hopkins (18 13-1878) was Huntington's partner 
in the hardware business, and seems to have been regarded as a man 
of unusually sound commercial judgment. 



THE NOTES 513 

Page 113, My Debt to My Country 

Frederick Gilbert Mutterer (1868-), born in Wurttemberg, 
Germany, has been for many years a member of the faculty of the 
Indiana State Normal School. 

I. This address was given as a chapel talk. 

10, II. Lessing (1729-1781), Goethe (1749-1832), and Schiller 
(i759~i8o5), dramatists, poets, and critics, are the three great 
names in "the spiritual contributions of old Germany." 

61. The Black Forest is a mountainous region, celebrated in 
romance and history, in western Wurttemberg, and eastern Baden. 

103. Otto H. Kahn (1867-), prominent New York banker, was 
bom in Germany. His speeches have been widely quoted as power- 
ful expressions of the loyalty of a large class of German-born 
citizens. 

Page 118. A Message from France 

John Huston Finley (1863-), American scholar and educator, 
was bom at Grand Ridge, Illinois, and graduated at Knox College. 
From 1892 to 1913 he was successively president of Knox College, 
professor of politics at Princeton, and president of the College of the 
City of New York. Since 19 13 he has been commissioner of educa- 
tion of the State of New York. During the war he was active 
as an executive of the Red Cross, mainly in Palestine. Several 
impressive poems and addresses inspired by the war have come 
from Doctor Finley during this period. 

43. Camoufiage. "A blind or cover screening military move- 
ments and operations from the enemy air scouts, and other recon- 
noitering parties. The most practicable and convenient cover is 
made of small foliage-bearing trees and brush. Camouflage, in its 
fullest sense, is the art of reducing the visibility of objects, and of 
deceiving as to their nature." (Farrow's Dictionary of Military 
Terms.) 

55. The lycees are the French secondary schools to prepare for 
the university. 

56. General Joseph Gallleni (i 849-1916) began his military 
career in the Franco-Prussian War, serving later in the various 
French possessions in Africa and as governor of Madagascar. In 
1 914 he was made the military governor of Paris, and his skill in 
organizing and handling a new army had much to do with the 
failure of the Germans in the first Battle of the Marne. Later he 
served for fourteen months as Minister of War, increasing his 



514 THE NOTES 

reputation for common-sense by cutting some of the red tape which 
seems inseparable from military matters. 

103. The croix de guerre is a French military decoration awarded 
for special meritorious services. Further honors are indicated by 
a branch of a palm placed on the ribbon for each additional award. 

125. Voltaire (i 694-1 778), famous French philosopher and writer. 

Page 138 What England Stands For 

James Bryce (Viscount Bryce) was born in Glasgow in 1838, and 
educated at the University of Glasgow and Trinity College, Oxford. 
He studied law and practiced as a barrister until 1882. From 1870 
to 1893 he was regius professor of civil law at Oxford. He entered 
Parliament, was a member of the cabinet and chief secretary for 
Ireland. From 1907 to 191 3 he was the British ambassador at 
Washington. As an author, he first achieved success with The 
Holy Roman Empire in 1862, His book on The American Common- 
wealth is a standard authority on the workings of our government. 
His liberal views, incisive style, and sound scholarship have given 
authority to his work and his writings. 

Page 147. The Spirit of France 

Rene Raphael Viviani, one of the most brilliant orators and 
radical leaders of France, was born in French North Africa, Novem- 
ber 8, 1863. He was educated in Paris, studied law, and began a 
parliamentary career in 1893. In various cabinets he has been at 
the head of the departments of Foreign Affairs, of Labor, and of 
Justice. He became Premier of France a short time before the 
outbreak of the war in 19 14, and remained in power until October, 
191 5. He was at the head of the French commission sent to this 
country shortly after our entrance into the war in 191 7 to plan for 
closer cooperation. The address delivered at the Auditorium, in 
Chicago, May 4, 19 17, has been chosen as fairly representative of 
his method in presenting the case of France to American audiences. 

16. Alsace-Lorraine was taken from France by Germany at the 
close of the Franco- Prussian War in 187 1 as a part of the heavy price 
of peace. The province has been governed as an imperial territory. 
While given a constitution in 191 1, Alsace-Lorraine has had "noth- 
ing even remotely resembling self-government" under German 
domination. The inhabitants constantly smarted under restrictive 
measures, and the recovery of the provinces has always been a 
prominent idea with France. The population in 19 10 was i ,874,014. 



THE NOTES 515 

The total area is 5,604 square miles. Lorraine is especially rich in 
iron ore. One of the first requirements of the armistice of Novem- 
ber, 191 8, was that Germany should immediately evacuate Alsace- 
Lorraine. (See Map 11.) 

24. The Morocco question has been a source of constant friction 
in recent years. As the result of establishing a sort of protectorate, 
France has been developing the resources of that country. Tangier, 
Casablanca, and Agadir are ports on the Atlantic coast of Morocco. 
The Kaiser landed unexpectedly at Tangier in 1905 and through his 
representatives recognized the sultan of Morocco as the source of 
power. In 191 1, the German gunboat "Panther" put in at Agadir 
and entered into relations with the nominal rulers on the pretense 
of protecting German commercial relations. Germany's whole 
course in respect to Moroccan affairs was that of a threatening bully 
toward France, and on more than one occasion war seemed inevit- 
able. In fact, France had to cede a great section of the Congo 
region to Germany to avoid war. 

114. Valmy, a little village thirty-six miles southeast of Rheims, 
was the scene of the defeat of the Prussians by a French revolu- 
tionary army under Kellerman in 1792. The importance of the 
battle was out of all proportion to the numbers engaged, as it estab- 
lished the military morale of the new French armies. Creasy 
includes Valmy in his famous Fifteen Decisive Battles of the World. 

117. In 732, the Saracen invaders of France were defeated by the 
French under Charles Martel. 

Page 155. Pro Patria 

Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian mystic poet and essayist, was born 
in Ghent, August 29, 1862. He studied philosophy and law, but 
has followed the calling of a man of letters. Among his dramas 
are The Blind, The Seven Princesses, and Monna Vanna. The 
general unreality and weirdness of his characters and situations 
make his work in this field appeal to a special class of admirers. 
However, his charming fairy play, The Blue Bird, has been uni- 
versally popular. In prose, Maeterlinck has written a number of 
volumes of essays which make a wide appeal on account of his 
fresh and poetic views of life and his marvelous style. The Life 
of the Bee is very generally regarded as the greatest of these volumes. 
Maeterlinck's addresses and writings growing out of the war are 
included in a volume called The Wrack of the Storm (New York: 
Dodd, Mead and Co.). 



5i6 THE NOTES 

i6. The great Asiatic invasions took place under Darius and 
Xerxes, kings of Persia in the latter part of the fifth century B.C. 
The Persians were disastrously defeated at Marathon in 490 B.C., 
and on sea two years later at Salamis. 

20. The famous incident at Thermopylae belongs to 480 B.C. 
Thermopylae was a very narrow pass next the sea on the eastern 
shore of Greece. It was the only gate through which an army 
could move from northern into southern Greece. For two days 
this pass was held by a small force under Leonidas, king pf Sparta. 
When through treachery the Persians had found a path to the rear 
of the defenders, Leonidas sent all his supporters away with the 
exception of his three hundred Spartans, with whom he died fight- 
ing. The parallel between this exploit of ancient history and the 
heroic defense of the Belgians against the invading Germans in 
August, 19 1 4, seems to have suggested itself to nearly all who have 
written of Belgium's part in the war. 

26. Albert I, king of the Belgians, was born in 1875, and suc- 
ceeded to the throne in 1909. He has always been an earnest 
student of all questions relating to the welfare of his country. The 
Kaiser seems to have brought enormous pressure to bear upon him 
before hostilities began in the efifort to secure unmolested passage 
for the Germans. Albert is given the main credit for Belgium's 
determination to stand for her rights. The courage and unwavering 
mind with which he has led his small army in the years since the 
war started make him stand out as one of the great heroic figures 
of the conflict. 

109. The inhabitants of northern and northwestern Belgium are 
mainly Flemings of Teutonic origin, while those of southern and 
southeastern Belgium are Walloons of French descent. During 
the years of German occupation special efforts were made to divide 
the allegiance of the people on racial lines. 

159. Belgian Pride 

Emile Verhaeren was born May 21, 1855. His native village of 
Saint-Amand, near Antwerp, was bombarded by German guns in 
the early days of the war. He was educated at the ancient Uni- 
versity of Louvain, given over with its priceless manuscripts to 
destruction by the Germans. For years he was accustomed to spend 
the spring and autumn at a little farm near Mons, which lay in the 
track of the retreating British and the pursuing German armies. 
Verhaeren was one of the most national of poets. The spiritual 



THE NOTES 517 

significance of Belgium received such expression in his verse as 
few poets have ever been able to give the land they love. It seems 
quite appropriate that he should be one to give immediate expression 
to Belgium's position as the "symbol of the German fury." This 
he did in a book of mingled poetry and prose called Belgium's 
Agony (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. Translated by M. T. H. 
Sadler). 

41. Liege is a fortified city near the eastern frontier of Belgium, 
which commanded the gateway through which the German arm}' 
had to pass to reach the plains of Belgium and northern France. 
The first attack was made on August 4, 19 14, and the westernmost 
fort, with the heroic commander of Liege, General Leman, fell into 
German hands eleven days later. This delay, giving the French 
and British time to arrange their defense, is generally held to have 
been a very important contributing cause of Germany's failure to 
win quickly, and of her subsequent defeat at the first Battle of the 
Mame in September, 19 14. 

Page 163. Britain s War Aims 

In studying this address make some such analysis of it as that of 
President Wilson's "Flag Day Address" on pages 503-504. Notice 
in particular whether Mr. Lloyd George differs in any important 
particular from the conditions laid down in President Wilson's 
"fourteen points." Is it clear just how Mr. Lloyd George proposes 
to settle the matter of the colonies captured from Germany? Does 
he agree with President Wilson in regard to the necessity of a League 
of Nations? 

Page 179. Ennobling Traged}) 

Gilbert Murray was bom at Sydney, New South Wales, in 1866. 
At the age of eleven he came to England and received his education 
at Merchant Taylors' School; London, and at St. John's College, 
Oxford. Since 1908 he has been professor of Greek at Oxford. He 
is especially noted for his fine translations of the dramas of Euripides. 
His broad views and humanitarian interests, coupled with a literary 
style of first quality, have made him a most inspiring publicist. 
His various addresses and discussions on the war, including the one 
from which " Ennobling Tragedy " is taken, have been brought to- 
gether in a volume called Faith, War, and Policy (Boston: Houghton 
Mifflin Co.). 

39. The Victoria Cross, one of the most coveted of all military 



5i8 THE NOTES 

decorations, is given by the British for unusual instances of courage 
"in the presence of the enemy." It is a bronze Maltese cross, with 
the words "For valor," suspended from a bar. An additional bar 
is added for each additional citation. The decoration originated 
with the Crimean War. The Legion of Honor is a famous order 
instituted by the French government in 1802 under Napoleon. 
Membership is bestowed for meritorious services, both military 
and civil. 

69. The Uhlans were the German cavalrymen who formed the 
screen thrown forward in the advance through Belgium and northern 
France in 19 14. 

98. The identification disk is a metal disk worn by soldiers, 
usually suspended around the neck. On it is the number by which 
the wearer can be identified in case he becomes a casualty. 

118. For a splendid poetic expression of this idea, see Lieutenant 
A. E. Mackintosh's poem "From Home," in Part IV. 

Page 183. The American Invasion of England 

Rudyard Kipling, Enghsh story-teller and poet, was born at 
Bombay, India, in 1865. Educated in England, he returned to 
India to engage in journalistic work at Lahore. He achieved a 
great reputation by his stories and poems dealing with civil and 
military life in India. The vigor and audacity, so attractive in his 
early books, has softened into a no less attractive mellowness with 
the passing of the years. Kipling lived in the United States for a 
few years prior to 1896, since which time he has resided in England. 
By word and pen he rendered good service to the cause of England 
and her allies throughout the war. 

5. The Battle of Hastings (1066) marked the complete victory 
of the Norman-French under William the Conqueror over the 
decaying Anglo-Saxon kingdom under Harold, "the Last of the 
Saxons." 

77. Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (i 746-1 825), of South Carolina, 
was sent to France by the United States Government as one of a 
mission to conduct negotiations with the Directory in 1796 at a 
time when a rupture between the two nations seemed inevitable. 
He was received with studied coolness, but it was finally suggested 
to him that a gift of money might lead to a chance for an under- 
standing. It was in reply to that suggestion that he is said to have 
uttered the famous retort that the United States had "millions for 
defense, but not one cent for tribute." 



THE NOTES 519 

Page 273. The Nexv Crusade 

Katharine Lee Bates (1859-) was born at Falmouth, Massa- 
chusetts, educated at Wellesley College, and since 1891 has been 
professor of English literature at Wellesley. Her scholarly work 
has appeared in editing many classics for use in schools, and in an 
excellent text on American Literature. She has written much 
poetry of more than average interest, her latest volume {The Retinue^ 
and Other Poems) containing many poems called forth by the war. 

"The New Crusade" is a splendid protest against the charge 
that America is merely a nation of traders. 

Page 274, The Old Kings 

Margaret Widdemer, who writes much for the magazines, was 
born at Doyleston, Pennsylvania. She has been much interested 
in the child-labor problem, and her poem "The Factories" has 
been widely quoted. All forms of injustice stir her spirit and give 
her poetry a vigorous, crusading force. 

39. "The Old Kings" is based upon the conception of Ragnarok, 
"the twilight of the gods," in Northern mythology. The forces 
of good and the forces of evil were to battle for the supremacy until 
the latter overcame and plunged the world into chaos once more. 
The closing stanza makes the poem a prayer that such a conclusion 
may not happen. 

3. King Arthur of the famous Round Table of English legend 
was carried to Avalon, where he sleeps until the world is ready for 
him to come again. 

4. Ogier, the Dane, one of the paladins of Charlemagne, is also, 
fabled as sleeping in Avalon, whence he may again come when needed 
to defend the right. 

5. Frederick I (1123?-! 190) of Germany, Holy Roman emperor, 
was called Barbarossa (which means Redbeard) by the Italians. 

6. Sigurd, the hero of Scandinavian story, was the greatest of 
the Volsungs, or kings of the Huns. 

11. Sebastian, king of Portugal, slain in battle against the Moors 
at the age of twenty-four, was to come again, according to legend, 
and make his country one of the greatest on earth. 

12. Charlemagne (742-814), say the romances, waits crowned 
and armed until the proper time, when he will wake up and deliver 
Christendom. 

13. Harold, last of the Saxon kings of England, was killed at the 
Battle of Hastings in 1066. 



520 THE NOTES 

14. Roland, nephew of Charlemagne, had a Ijorn so mighty that 
it could be heard at a distance of thirty miles. 

24. Olaf was a famous viking of the tenth century, who ravaged 
the coasts of France, Britain, and Ireland. 

29. King Henry V won the battle of Agincourt with his English 
bowmen in 1415. (See Arthur Machen's "The Bowmen," p. 416.) 

31. Joan of Arc has been constantly invoked as the inspirer of 
the French. As the English were responsible for her death, she 
must have now forgiven them, since French and English are allies. 

Page 275. The Knights 

Abbie Farwell Brown was born at Boston and educated at Rad- 
cliffe College. She was one of the editors of The Young Folks' 
Library, an extended and most valuable collection of material for 
children's reading. She has written several books particularly for 
children, and, as this poem shows, is able to write most stirring 
verse. 

In spite of all the differences between the picturesque warfare of 
earlier days and the grim business of the modem, it still remains 
true that the knightly spirit has not passed away. 

9. Launcelot was the greatest of all the knights of King Arthur's 
Round Table. Richard of the Lion Heart was a king of England 
in the twelfth century, a famous warrior and crusader. 

10. For Roland, see preceding poem. Godfrey of Bouillon lived 
in the latter part of the eleventh century and was a leader in the 
first Crusade. 

17. Sir Philip Sidney was mortally wounded at the battle of 
Zutphen (1586). "Then it was that, overcome with thirst, he 
called for something to drink. Presently a bottle of water was 
brought, and he hastily put it to his lips. But at that moment he 
saw a poor soldier who was being carried past, and the dying man 
set greedy, ghastly eyes upon the precious draught. Sir Philip 
drank nothing. He handed the flask to the soldier, saying as he did 
so, 'Thy necessity is yet greater than mine.' " 

19. Bayard, "the knight without fear and without reproach," 
the most knightly of all the medieval knights. He was mortally 
wounded in the battle of Sesia (1524) while covering the retreat of 
the French army. He ordered his companions to place him with 
his face to the enemy, and then urged them to ride on and save them- 
selves. The Spaniards, against whom he was fighting, tried to outdo 
the French in the honors paid to Bayard's remains and his memory. 



THE NOTES 521 

Page 277. *'Men Who March Axt>ay"" 

Thomas Hardy was born in Dorsetshire, England, June 2, 1840. 
He was educated as an architect, but after reaching the age of thirty 
.devoted himself to Hterature. He is the author of a long list of 
powerful novels. Among the best-known are. Under the Greenwood 
Tree, Far from the Madding Crowd, The Trumpet Major, The Returfi 
of the Native, and Tess of the D' Urbervilles. About 1895, Hardy quit 
writing fiction and confined himself to writing verse. His poetry, 
like his fiction, presents, as a rule, the more serious and gloomy 
side of life. Hardy's home is near Dorchester, a few miles from 
the English Channel. 

"Men Who March Away" was written in the early days of the 
war — it was dated September 5, 19 14 — and was very effective in 
the campaign then carried on to secure volunteers for the new 
English armies. 

Page 278. Song of Liberty 

Mrs. Louise Ayres Garnett, author and composer, was born at 
Plymouth, Indiana. Her present home is at Evanston, Illinois. 
Mrs. Garnett is also the author of the blank-verse play The Fiery 
Pillar and of the connecting narrative of Peace with a Sword, both 
of which are in Part VI of this volume. Most of her briefer poems 
have the lyrical quality so necessary for singing. 

9. Read Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (1865) with its 
well-known closing sentence: "With malice toward none; with 
charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the 
right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the 
nation's wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and 
for his widow, and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and 
cherish ajust and lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." 

Page 279. Tecumseh and the Eagles 

Bliss Carman, poet and essayist, was bom at Fredericton, New 
Brunswick, in 1861. He was educated at the University of New 
Brunswick, and continued his studies at Edinburgh, Scotland, and 
at Harvard University. In connection with the lamented Richard 
Hovey, he published early in his career three little volumes of 
Songs from Vagabondia, containing some of his most attractive 
work. His many small volumes of verse finally reached the dignity 
of Collected Poems (1905). The fresh breezes seem to blow through 
all of Carman's verse. 



522 THE NOTES 

I. Tecumseh, chief of the Shawnee Indians (1768-18 13), made a 
great effort to unite all the western Indians against the whites. 
The second section of the poem tells what the eagles taught him was 
necessary for the success of his dream; the third section tells why 
his dream of a great league failed; the fourth section applies the 
story to the present and indicates something of the spirit necessary 
if the nation which is fighting for freedom is not to fail even as 
Tecumseh did. 

Page 282. Memorial Da^ 

Theodosia Garrison was born at Newark, New Jersey, in 1874. 
Her verse and stories are constantly met in the magazines. One 
of her three published volumes of poetry is called The Joy of Life, 
a title which suggests the abounding and dramatic life found in all 
her writing. 

In "Memorial Day" we are led to see more than the vivid picture 
of the old veterans. The years roll back and they are as "alive 
and young and straight again" as the marching columns of the new 
citizen army that so recently filled our streets, the embodiment of 
"the spirit of America." 

Page 283. The White Ships and the Red 

Joyce Kilmer was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Decem- 
ber 6, 1886. He was educated at Rutgers College and Columbia 
University. After a brief experience as a high-school teacher of 
Latin, he took up editorial and journalistic work in New York City. 
As a popular lecturer on literary topics he was in much demand. 
Two small volumes of poetry. Trees and Other Poems, and Main 
Street and Other Poems, were widely read and favorably received by 
the critics. 

Following the torpedoing of the liner "Lusitania" in May, 
1915, with the loss of 1,154 lives, Kilmer wrote "The White Ships 
and the Red," and it is said that the sinking of the "Lusitania" 
was the impetus that caused him to enter the army. He went to 
France with the Rainbow Division as a sergeant in the 165th Infan- 
try. He put into his work as a soldier the same "relentless energy 
and enthusiasm" as had characterized his work as a journalist. 
He was killed in action on July 30, 191 8, during the great Marne 
advance. Sergeant Esler, who served side by side with Kilmer in 
this advance, related the incidents of his death in the New York 
Times: 



THE NOTES 523 

"Joyce Kilmer met his end in the heroic performance of his duty. 
.... Being attached to the IntelHgence Department, it was the 
duty of Kilmer to precede the battalion and discover the possible 
location of enemy guns and enemy units. The last time I saw him 
alive was on the morning after he had crept forth alone into No 
Man's Land and had come back on a brief errand into the village. 
He was full of enthusiasm and eager to rush back into the woods 
where he and others had suddenly discovered enemy machine guns. 
A party of us moved out with him, the battalion slowly following. 
Then the commander sent forth a patrol with Kilmer in the lead to 
establish the location of the machine guns. I lost sight of Kilmer, 
and a couple of hours later, when the battalion advanced into the 
woods to clear the spot of the enemy, I suddenly caught sight of 
Kilmer lying on his stomach on a bit of sloping ground, his eyes just 
peering over the top of what appeared to be a natural trench. 
.... We called to him but received no answer. Then I ran up 
and turned him on his back only to find that he was dead." 

A memorial edition of Joyce Kilmer's works has recently been 
published, with a memoir by his friend, Robert Cortes Holliday. 
Kilmer's death, said Edwin Markham, "is a great loss to the forces 

of idealism in the nation Every line from his pen is an 

honor to his mind and to his manhood." 

In "The White Ships and the Red" the ghosts of all the ships 
lost at sea are gathered in "sunless waters" waiting the Judgment 
Day. They wear robes of white because they met their destiny 
"by storm or rock or fight." In their midst is the "grim 'Titanic,' " 
the great White Star liner lost (19 12) on her maiden voyage across 
the Atlantic through collision with an iceberg, with a toll of 1,513 
lives. The ghost ships are startled by a mighty vessel coming to 
join them, "not white, as all dead ships must be, but red, like living 
flame." Questioned by the "Titanic," the blood-red ship (the 
"Lusitania") tells of the "loathly deed .... without a name" 
which turned the world into "a shameful place," and cries out for 
vengeance. 

Page 286. The Declaration of Independence 

In this poem we are taking the pledge to answer a tyrant even 
as the gentlemen who signed the famous declaration. It will help 
in understanding it to recall some of the points made by President 
Wilson in his address on the "Meaning of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence" (p. 24). 



524 



THE NOTES 



Page 286. America, To Arms 

Blanche Shoemaker Wagstafif, writer of essays, plays, and poems, 
was born in New York City in 1888. As a member of the Vigilantes 
she had a part (as this poem exemplifies) in stirring up the patriotic 
spirit of the nation. 

Page 287. The Great Blue Tent 

Edith Wharton, born in New York in 1862, has many volumes of 
high-class fiction to her credit. Her books are marked by clean- 
cut analytic powers in the presentation of character and by distinc- 
tion of style. The Greater Inclination and The House of Mirth may 
be mentioned as characteristic. Mrs. Wharton is in close sym- 
pathy with the French spirit and has done most valuable service 
for that gallant nation during the recent years. Three books 
growing out of that experience are Fighting France; Summer, 1917; 
and The Marne. The French Government has recognized her ser- 
vice by making her a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. 

"The Great Blue Tent" was written in the days when the United 
States seemed intent upon remaining neutral in its attitude toward 
the warring nations, and is given here as one of the best and most 
powerful of the many poems written to bring about a change. 

The following analysis, quoted from The Outlook, will make clear 
the poem's meaning: 

"In the first four stanzas the American Flag tells how it has always 
stood for Freedom, and how it has sheltered beneath its peaceful 
folds all those who have fled from the tyranny and crushing mili- 
tarism of Europe. 

"But while our Flag is thus boastfully reviewing the fifty years 
of peace and plenty in the United States suddenly it hears a cry 
from across the seas. 

"This cry of the flags comes afar from the Union Jack of the great 
Motherland, which shares with us the political and moral ideals 
that are the common heritage of the English-speaking races; it 
comes from the Tricolor of France, the chivalrous people that gave 
us such timely assistance during our own War of Independence ; and 
it comes from the Flags of martyred Belgium and the Italy of 
Mazzini, Garibaldi, and Cavour. 

"The Flags of those nations in Europe that had learned the lessons 
of our own Lexington and Concord, and that are to-day desperately 
struggling to ordain that freedom shall not perish from the earth, 
are now calling to the Stars and Stripes. Their rousing and 



THE NOTES 525 

reproachful appeal, it will be seen, begins with the third line of 
the fifth stanza. 

"The ninth stanza opens with Old Glory's reply. Its mood has 
changed. At last it has caught that ardor for liberty which once 
shook it out to 'the winds of war.' And the concluding five stanzas 
voice the American Flag's noble and indignant appeal to the Ameri- 
can people to awake from the sordid and shameful slumber into 
which they have fallen and to align themselves openly and effec- 
tively with the European democracies in the tremendous fight which 
they are making against the militaristic autocracies of Germany, 
Austria-Hungary, and Turkey for the freedom of the world." 

Page 289. Shoulder to Shoulder 

Clinton Scollard was born at Clinton, New York, in i860. He 
was educated at Hamilton College, where for many years he has 
held the chair of English literature. He is the author of several 
volumes of simple and delicate verse, strong in its popular appeal. 
The Vale of Shadaws and Other Verses of the Great War and Italy 
in Arms and Other Verses contain his poems of the war. 

Page 289. The Avenue of the Allies 

Alfred Noyes was bom in Staffordshire, England, September 16, 
1880. He was educated at Oxford University, and though still a 
young man has many volumes of poetry to his credit. His wife is 
an American, and for several years Mr. Noyes has been a most 
popular lecturer on literature at Princeton University. He is a 
delightful oral interpreter of his own poems and has interested audi- 
ences all over the United States. He does not depend upon startling 
innovations to attract attention to his work and is not afraid to 
write in the manner of the great popular poets of the past. "The 
Barrel-Organ" is very generally regarded as his masterpiece. 
"This poem," says Professor Phelps, "affects the head, the heart, 
and the feet. I defy any man or woman to read it without surren- 
dering to the magic of the lilacs, the magic of old memories, the 
magic of the poet. Nor has any one ever read this poem without 
going immediately back to the first line, and reading it all over 
again, so susceptible are we to the romantic pleasure of melancholy." 
Another of his more popular poems is "The Highwayman." 
Throughout his work courses a delightfully fresh and optimistic 
spirit, radiating the old-time Elizabethan joy of life. Mr. Noyes 
has written some of the finest poetry called forth by the war. 



526 THE NOTES 

The inspiration for this poem came from the decoration of Fifth 
Avenue, New York City, for the Fourth Liberty Loan drive in 
October, 191 8. Instead of the hodge-podge decoration so commonly 
seen, the matter was placed in the hands of the artists of the city. 
The window displays were worked out by individual artists. The 
blaze of color for the outer decoration "was obtained entirely by 
an arrangement of flags — the flags of the Allies in successive groups 
with everywhere the 'Buy a Bond' banner to strike a rich recurrent 
note of red. No one who looked up or down the splendid street 
during the weeks of the loan can forget this blaze of color between 
the rows of palaces, under the October sky — not a crude blaze, but 
a rich flaming, like the fires of gold and scarlet, of dahlia and chrysan- 
themum, in an autumnal garden." This street, thus decorated, 
was called "The Avenue of the Allies," and Mr. Noyes uses the 
name as the title of his poem. 

Page 292. Pro Patria 

Sir Owen Seaman, English poet, humorist, and editor, was bom 
in 1 861. After completing his education at Cambridge, he was for 
several years professor of literature at Durham College, Newcastle. 
Later he joined the staff of the famous humorous and satirical jour- 
nal. Punch, and in 1906 became its editor-in-chief. He has pub- 
lished several volumes of verse. 

"Pro Patria" appeared in the early days of the war. It is a very 
dignified expression of the Englishman's faith in the justice of his 
country's cause, and particularly impressive in its enumeration 
of what those who cannot fight may do to serve that cause most 
effectively. 

Page 294. America 

It is worth noticing that just as the very serious poem preceding 
appeared in the great English humorous weekly, so this equally 
serious poem by Eleanor Duncan Wood appeared in the American 
humorous weekly. Life. Many people need to revise their impres- 
sion that the business of a "humorous" journal is merely to be 
"funny." Such periodicals very largely use humor as a means of 
attacking and putting to flight all sorts of real or likely abuses, 
shams, and follies. Thus we find in this poem an appeal to those 
who have been welcomed from other nations to realize that the 
obligation of loyalty to America rests upon them no less than upon 
America's "own children." 



THE NOTES 527 

Page 294. The Union 

This splendid apotheosis of the United States as the reaHzation, 
already accomplished, of what the war is to do for all men, comes 
with special force and graciousness from a poet who is the citizen 
of another nation. 

Page 295. To the American People 

Lawrence Binyon, English author and poet, was bom at Lan- 
caster, England, in 1869. While at Oxford University he won the 
Newdigate prize for poetry. He already has some dozen volumes 
of verse to his credit. Since 1893 he has been connected with the 
British Museum. His war verse has been published in this country 
under the title The Cause. 

"To the American People" was inspired by the sight of the first 
columns of American soldiers marching through the London streets. 
As in the preceding poem, we have here the meaning that such an 
event carries to the mind of an Englishman who knows something 
of America through direct contact. 

Page 297. Here: and There 

Francis William Bourdillon, English poet, was bom in 1852. He 
was educated at Worcester College, Oxford. 

These contrasted pictures of English scenes of beauty and joy 
and of the dreadful horror across the channel in those terrible days 
of 19 1 4 are an illustration of Mr. Bourdillon 's power to achieve 
a great effect within a small compass. Notice the striking value 
of the final line of each stanza. 

Page 297. Young and Old 

Henry Allsop, an English poet, is the author of a volume of verse 
called forth by the war. Songs from a Dale in War Time. The selec- 
tion chosen indicates that the changes wrought by war are not all 
in the devastated districts. The young person of the dialogue is 
conscious of the external changes, the old of the human element 
back of these changes. 

Pages 298-304 

The poems on these pages reflect the ties, mainly domestic, which 
unite the members of the citizen armies and those who stay at home 
and follow with affectionate memory and imagination the loved 
ones abroad. 
35 



528 THE NOTES 

Lon Brier, an American writer, allows us a glimpse, in "The 
Empty Coat," into the hearts of the lowly parents of a boy in 
France — a mingling of pride with a sense of loss and loneliness 
not to be denied. 

Lieutenant Eric P. Dawson, in "Letters from Home," shows us 
vividly how important the messages of cheer and hope are in the 
soldier's despondent and trying moments. 

Strickland Gillilan expresses the "fear and heartache" mingled 
with overmastering patriotic pride of the mother who watches the 
boy of yesterday go marching off, "a six-foot man in soldier-clothes." 
Mr. Gillilan, bom in Ohio in 1869, is a well-known writer of humorous 
stories and verse, for many years on the staff of Judge. His name 
is most familiarly associated with his famous "Off agin, on agin, 
gone agin, Finnegan" story. 

Edgar A. Guest presents the father whose small, selfish purposes 
in life have been transformed by the crusading spirit of his son. 
Mr. Guest, bom in Birmingham, England, has for several years 
conducted a column of verse and humorous sketches in the Detroit 
Free Press. His poems constitute a sort of "glorified journalism" 
and are republished in many papers and read daily by thousands. 

Jessie Pope lets us see what passes through the mother's mind — 
reminiscences, fears, wonderings, assurance — as she engages in the 
homely, practical art of socks. And how clear it is that those socks 
will be perfect! Jessie Pope is an Englishwoman, born at Leicester, 
whose work appears often in Punch and whose humorous column, 
" Slips of the Pen," in the London Evening Standard, has been widely 
entertaining. She has written many verse books for children. 

Clinton Scollard in one of his characteristic and beautifully simple 
poems shows us the dweller in the protected Homeland contrasting 
his own comfort with what is true in Flanders or in Picardy. 

Again in Frank L. Stanton's "A Boy Over There" the parental 
attitude is set forth. Again "the heal for the hurt" is found in the 
pride of the knowledge that "he came when his country called sons 
to her side." 

"A Girl's Song" is a mourning song, a dirge for the lover who will 
not return. It deals with one of the painful themes of war, but its 
exquisite beauty and tenderness cannot fail to find a response in the 
reader. Katharine Tynan (Mrs. Hinkson) is an Irish novelist and 
poet who lives in County Mayo. Her first volume of verse appeared 
in 1885. She is especially sympathetic in her interpretations of 



THE NOTES 529 

the young, and some of her best work is in the volume called 
"Flower of Youth." 

Page 305. Things That Were Yours 

Lieutenant Dyneley Hussey of the Lancashire Fusiliers, one of 
England's soldier-poets, is the author of some fine poetry inspired 
by the war. A collection of his verse has been published under the 
title Fleur-de-Lys. "Things That Were Yours" deals with the 
powerful associations that cluster around even the simple things 
that belonged to those who are gone. The mention of these things 
produces a sort of cumulative effect as it progresses. 

Page 305. When I Come Home 

Sergeant Leslie Coulson was a brilliant young London journalist^ 
bom in 1889. He enlisted as a private in the London Fusiliers in 
September, 19 14. He saw service at Gallipoli and in Egypt, and 
in 19 1 6 was transferred to the battle front in France. He was 
mortally wounded, October 7, 1916, in the forefront of an attack 
on a German position. His war verse is in a volume called From an 
Outpost and Other Poems. These poems constitute one of the best 
expressions of what is in the hearts of the fighting men. This 
particular poem is full of longing for the quiet, peaceful affection 
and comfort of the English countryside, "wistful, never-to-be- 
realized dreams." 

Page 306. High Heart 

Aline Kilmer (Mrs. Joyce Kilmer) has given a voice to the heroic 
spirit that has existed unsung deep in the hearts of millions of her 
countrywomen as well as of other millions in other lands. "High 
Heart" has the supreme merit of not saying a word too much, and 
thus gains poignant force from its vivid definiteness. 

Page 307. In France 

Francis Ledwidge is very generally regarded as standing near 
the head of the soldier-poets of the war. Lord Dunsany "discov- 
ered" him as a road mender in County Meath, Ireland. His first 
volume of verse. Songs of the Fields, was published in 19 14, a few 
weeks before the beginning of the war. He served in Gallipoli, 
in Saloniki, in Serbia, and finally on the Western front. Wounded 
once, he recovered and went back ; and he was killed by the fragment 
of a shell, July 31, 191 7. While he had seen much of the war, his- 



,530 THE NOTES 

poems were always about home. He wrote to a friend: "I am 
always homesick. I hear the roads calling, and the hills, and the 
rivers, wondering where I am." This quotation forms the best 
commentary on the little poem chosen to represent his work. 

Page 307, Cba Till Maccruimein 

Lieutenant E. A. Mackintosh was a student at Oxford when the 
war broke out. Rejected at first on account of his eyesight, he 
finally secured a commission in the Seaforth Highlanders. He 
served in France from July, 19 15, to August, 19 16, when he returned 
to England as the result of a wound. He went back to France in 
September, 191 7, and fell in action, November 21, 191 7, while 
carrying on observations under heavy shell-fire. He was twenty- 
four at the time of his death. He had published one volume of 
war verse, A HigUmid Regiment, Since his death a second collection 
has appeared called War the Liberator, and Other Poems. 

"Cha Till Maccruimein" is the name of an old Gaelic lament, 
the sentiment of which is indicated by the quoted lines at the end 
of each stanza. The poem is built around the contrast between the 
brave parade of the Highlanders as they march to war and the dark 
forebodings of the old lament which insists on occupying the poet's 
consciousness. MacCrimmon was a famous old piper and composer 
of pibrochs (bagpipe music). 

Page 308. The Spires of Oxford 

Winifred M. Letts, novelist and poet, was born in Ireland in 
1882. Her war verse has been published in this country under the 
title The Spires of Oxford and Other Poems. The title poem was 
inspired by the early events of the war when practically all of the 
young men of the universities immediately entered the service. 
Passengers on the Great Western Railway, which passes through 
the outskirts of the city, have a most attractive view of the many 
spires and towers of the various colleges and churches. It was not 
surprising that a sensitive nature in the presence of such beauty 
should think of the contrast between its quiet happiness and the 
tragedy of war. The simplicity and sincerity of the poem have 
made it one of the most popular of those growing out of the war. 

Page 309. At the Wars 

Robert Nichols, a young English poet, who had hardly entered 
upon his work at Oxford when the call to war came, was bom in 



THE NOTES 531 

1893. He has published two volumes, Invocations and Ardours 
and Endurances. The latter contains some of the most realistically 
powerful verse of the war. Especially eflfective and original are 
the poems dealing with the successive stages of a battle. "At the 
Wars" opens with an expression of that love of country that sym- 
bolizes itself in the beautiful reminiscences of the English landscapes. 
Then (lines 35 flf.) he is "suddenly aware that the last self-sacrifice, 
after all, is but the price that is due for the beauty of England 

inwrought inextricably in his being Also he sees, in the 

self -same moment of vision, that the bravery of her lost sons will 
add to the beauty of the land adored." 

Page 310. Home Thoughts in Laventie 

E. Wyndham Tennant was a schoolboy at Winchester, England, 
when the war began. As a lieutenant in the Grenadier Guards 
he went to the front and, at the age of nineteen, was killed in action 
on the Somme, in September, 19 16. He is said to have finished the 
proofs of his little book of poems, Worple Flit, and Other Poems, on 
the eve of his last battle. 

Laventie is a town within the battle region of northern France. 
A little garden was left in the midst of the wreckage, and its beauty 
and perfume sent the heart questing, as in so many of the English 
poems, to scenes across the channel. 

Page 312. While Summers Pass 

Aline Michaelis is an American journalist, on the staff of the 
Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise. She has written a number of poems 
distinguished for their delicacy of sentiment and evident sincerity. 
"Never-ending remembrance," to use Poe's term, is the theme of 
"While Summers Pass." It is a threnody for one who left the quiet 
blossoms of peace to pluck the laurels of conflict, but who also 
plucked Death's lilies. 

Page 3 J 3. Sympathy^ 

One of the strange qualities in human nature is that we can gen- 
erally reconcile ourselves to whatever discomforts our own lot may 
bring us, while remaining keenly conscious of the discomforts of 
those in other conditions. No doubt the men in the trenches would 
have been unwilling to change their lot for storm and sleet on the 
deck of a tossing destroyer. The Day (line 5) refers to the time 
of the long-expected coming out of the German fleet for the great 



532 THE NOTES 

•sea battle for which the Grand Fleet of England stood always ready 
for more than four years. The actual "coming out" at the end of 
November, 191 8, was very different from Der Tag of which the 
•Germans had long boasted. 

Page 314. Our Hitch in Hell 

A sense of humor is a preservative of sanity. The various dis- 
comforts of the soldier's lot were, at least, materially lightened by 
turning them into jokes. In this delightfully whimsical set of 
verses, William Childs, an American soldier in a machine-gun com- 
pany of the 104th Infantry, finds consolation, when inclined to 
gloomy comparisons, in the conviction that they are certain of 
heaven after what they have gone through. 

Page 315. Yanks 

James W. Foley, journalist and humorist, was born in St. Louis 
in 1874. For some years he has been on the staff of the Bismarck 
(North Dakota) Tribune. His verse has been widely popular. The 
composite nature of our nation is the source of the fun in the selec- 
tion of this group of fighters for a skirmishing party. The names 
are sufficient evidences of their origin, and Mr. Foley scores for the 
Irishman by giving him the leadership as well as equal representation 
in the ranks. 

Page 317. Marching Song 

Dana Burnet, American poet and journalist, was born in Cincin- 
nati in 1888. After graduating from Cornell University College of 
Law in 191 1, he went to New York and became connected with the 
Evening Sun as a special writer. His poems have received most 
favorable attention. 

The "Marching Song" is an expression of the thrill that went 
through American hearts when, in the gloomy days of the great 
German offensive in the spring of 191 8, the news came that General 
Pershing's troops were marching up to take their places alongside 
the veteran allied armies. The cable told us that General Pershing 
-said to Marshal Foch : 

"I come to say to you that the American people would hold it 
a great honor for our troops were they engaged in the present 
battle. I ask it of you in my name and in that of the American 
people. There is at this moment no other question than that of 
fighting. Infantry, artillery, aviation — all that we have are yours 



THE NOTES 



533 



to dispose of them as you will. Others are coming which are as 
numerous as will be necessary. I have come to say to you that the 
American people would be proud to be engaged in the greatest battle 
in history." 

Page 319, The Road 

Gordon Alchin, English poet-soldier, is the author of an attractive 
little book of verse, Oxford and Flanders. His work is often signed 
"Observer, R. F. C." The fact that men remain the same though 
conditions may change is illustrated by three pictures at intervals 
of a thousand years. Outwardly the appearance of the armies, 
the modes of transportation, the language, are all different, but 
what the men say about the road comes to the same thing. 

Page 320, Kilmeny 

The stirring and largely unheralded part played by the English 
trawlers in the warfare against the submarines is fitly celebrated 
by Mr. Noyes. These steam fishing boats were used as "submarine 
chasers." The drifters (line i) were the boats used in handling the 
great nets of steel used to protect harbor entrances against sub- 
marines. 

Page 32 J, *' Form Fours** 

Frank Sidgwick, a young English soldier, has given humorous 
expression to the "nightmare" result that follows a new volunteer's 
efforts to adapt himself to new and unusual discipline. "Form 
Fours," a disciplinary drill not in the American manual, is explained 
in the poem itself. It seems easy, but in the troubled sleep of the 
tired recruit the "nightmare" makes sad havoc of it. 

Page 322. Half 'Past Eleven Square 

C. Fox Smith is an English writer, whose ballad-like verses on 
the war have appeared in many periodicals, particularly in Punch. 
A "Tommy," in his vivid dialect, gives a striking picture of a ruined 
town in Flanders, with its clock, as in the old custom, marking the 
hour of death. 

Page 324, M^U-D 

John Oxenham is a very popular English writer of fiction and 
verse. After several years devoted to travel and business, he 
entered upon a literary career, his first great success, the novel 
called God's Prisoner, appearing in 1898. From that time he has 



534 



THE NOTES 



produced an average of more than one novel a year. In the last 
few years, particularly since 19 14, he has published several volumes 
of poetry. These verse volumes have had a remarkably wide 
circulation. They are unpretentious, very sincere and unaffected, 
full of a devotional spirit, expressions of the heart of common 
humanity. Of his single poems, the most widely circulated has 
been the "Hymn for the Men at the Front." One of his latest 
books is High Altars, a record in mingled prose and verse of the 
impressions gained from a visit to the front. 

The terrible mud of Flanders has been duly execrated in letters 
and books from soldiers and observers alike. No form of exag- 
geration seems quite equal to the work of expressing it. In this 
poem, which is from the last book mentioned above, a London 
cockney is quoted. His picturesque dialect, his humorous sense 
of the muddiness of this muddiest of all mud, and above all the way 
he manages to make clear that m-u-d is no respecter of persons, all 
contribute to our pleasure. And what a breath-taking list of 
accusing epithets he flings at it in the close! The cockney's pro- 
nunciation is indicated for us in the spelling. His a's have a habit 
of becoming long i's; thus in line 30, where he bakes (the mud) with 
each cake that he makes. 

Page 325. The Half-Hour's Furlough 

Joseph Lee, English soldier in the Black Watch regiment, is the 
author of a most attractive book of poems called Ballads of Battle, 
illustrated by himself. In one of these ballads, "The Half-Hour's 
Furlough," the tired soldier's mind takes him in sleep on a journey 
to familiar scenes of the past. The shock of the contrast between 
this picture of love and peace and the battle sounds of his rude 
awakening is very effective. The dropping into the old Scotch 
expressions (in lines 39-54) is in keeping with the return to the past. 
"Strath" (line 54) is a word of Gaelic origin meaning valley. 

Page 328. On Leaving Ireland and To M\j Daughter Beit}) 
Thomas M. Kettle, born in r88o, was a prominent Irish lawyer 
and journalist, professor of economics in University College, Dublin, 
and a member of Parliament. He left for France in July, 191 6, a 
lieutenant in the Dublin Fusiliers, and was killed in September of 
the same year. Kettle's friends all bear testimony to his personal 
charms and his fascinating powers of humor and satire. A small 
body of essays and poems bears out this testimony. 



THE NOTES 535 

Prefixed to "On Leaving Ireland," Kettle placed the following 
note: "The pathos of departure is indubitable. I never felt my 
own essay 'On Saying Good-Bye' so profoundly aux trefonds du 
cceur (from the depths of the heart). The sun was a clear globe 
of blood which we caught hanging over Ben Edar, with a trail of 
pure blood vibrating to us across the waves. It dropped into 
darkness before we left the deck. Some lines came to me, sug- 
gested by a friend who thought the mood cynical." In the light 
of after events, the last line of the poem seems prophecy. 

"To My Daughter Betty" is dated from "the field, before Guille- 
mont, Somme, September 4, 19 16." The poet is concerned that 
his daughter should know, when she comes to maturity, that her 
father endured privations and gave his life for no common reason, 
but for a splendid "dream, bom in a herdsman's shed, and for the 
secret Scripture of the poor." No one has given simpler expression 
to the disinterestedness of the soldier of the new armies than Kettle. 

Page 329. The Cricketers of Flanders 

James Norman Hall was born at Colfax, Iowa, in 1887. He 
graduated at Grinnell College. From 19 10 to 19 14 he was with 
the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. 
At the outbreak of the war, he was traveling in England, and 
immediately enlisted in the Kitchener Army. From May to 
November, 191 5, he saw service in France. Transferred to the 
Franco-American Flying Corps, he became a pilot in the Lafayette 
Escadrille. He was wounded and captured by the Germans in the 
final campaign of 19 18, his release following the signing of the 
armistice. Mr. Hall is the author of two widely read books on the 
war. Kitchener's Mob and High Adventure. 

"The Cricketers of Flanders" pays tribute to the British Tommy 
as Mr. Hall knew him. The game of cricket is a favorite one in 
England, and the sportsman-like quality developed by it seems 
to the poet so characteristic that he suggests a symbolic statue of 
the British soldier posed in the act of throwing a hand grenade. 
This would be the position of the cricketer when "lobbing them 
over," that is, when pitching a slow underhand ball with a spin. 

Page 330. What Can I Do? 

Lee Wilson Dodd, poet and dramatist, was born in Franklin, 
Pennsylvania, in 1879, graduated at Yale, studied law, and about 
1907 devoted himself to literature. He is perhaps best known by 



536 THE NOTES 

his play His Majesty Bunker Bean. His writings have been char- 
acterized as an "excellent combination of fancy and humor." Mr. 
Dodd has seen service in France. 

Page 331. Easter, 19 J 8 

John Richards, the author of this Easter chant, is a young Ameri- 
can soldier, grandson of Julia Ward Howe. One of the interesting 
things about the poem is the absence of rhyme. 

Page 332. DaXPTi 

Daniel M. Henderson, American writer, is the author of several 
striking poems on war themes for various current periodicals. For 
one of these, "The Road to France," he was awarded a prize of 
$250 by the National Arts Club, in 191 7. In " Dawn" he expresses 
the soldier's state of mind as he prepares to carry out the general 
orders quoted as a motto. The second stanza pierces to the inner 
meaning of it all. 

Page 332. The Lads of Liege 

Percy Mackaye, American dramatist and poet, was born in New 
York in 1875. He graduated at Harvard and studied abroad. He 
has been much interested in the problems of the literary drama and 
of the community pageant. Among his plays may be mentioned 
The Scarecrow, Mater, and To-Morrow. His elaborate civic masque 
Saint Louis was given in 19 14 by several thousand performers at 
the one-hundred-fiftieth anniversary of the founding of that city. 

"The Lads of Liege" is an enthusiastic tribute to the Belgians 
who stayed for a few days the onrush of the German armies in 
August, 1914. The poem makes use of Caesar's famous saying, 
"Of all these the bravest are the Belgians," as of equal force to-day 
as when spoken two thousand years ago. 

Page 334. Belgium the Bar-Lass 

A. Mary F. Robinson (Madame Duclaux) is an English writer. 
In this poem she retells the story of the famous Scottish heroine 
Katherine Douglas who tried to save the life of King James I of 
Scotland when he was attacked by assassins. The incident took 
place at Perth in 1437. The poet Rossetti makes this same incident 
the basis of his fine poem "The King's Tragedy." 

It is interesting to observe that Belgium is not mentioned in the 
body of the poem. It was written at a time when people were 



THE NOTES 537 

thinking only of the Belgian resistance, and would easily make the 
application. For us the title gives the clue needed. 

Pages 335-340 

The four poems on these pages pay tribute to the aviators. 

E. D. Gibbs, an American writer, gives the impression of the 
man on the land as he observes the man-birds "doing the things 
that the eagles do." 

Gilbert Frankau lets us look at the matter from the standpoint 
of the flying man engaged in the hazardous task of directing the 
fire of the artillery. Mr. Frankau, an English author, was bom 
in 1884, and at the beginning of the war was a lieutenant of infantry. 
He saw extended service in France, and in October, 1916, was pro- 
moted to the rank of staff captain in the Intelligence Corps. 

James A. Mackereth, an English poet, tells of the thrills of combat 
high in the air with "splendid foemen." 

Blanche M. Kelly, an American, writes a dirge for the Italian 
aviator, Resnati, who was killed in the fall of his machine in May, 
191 8. The accident happened in America while Resnati was help- 
ing to train our army aviators. 

Pages 340-344 

.Four American poets pay tribute to France in these pages. 

Grace Ellery Channing (Mrs. Stetson), poet and miscellaneous 
writer, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1862. In her 
stirring "Qui Vive?" the flags of France pass by as leaders of the 
spirit of man in its advance toward freedom. 

Henry van Dyke (1852-), preacher, poet, essayist, publicist, 
was our minister to the Netherlands and Luxembourg from 19 13 
to 191 7, when he resigned. In 19 18 he entered the navy as a chap- 
lain. His poetic toast in honor of France was read at the close of 
his Lafayette Day Address in New York City in September, 19 17. 

Richard Butler Glaenzer published a collection of verse in 
191 7 under the title Beggar and King. His "Vive la France!" 
gives the proper answer to Von Hindenburg's remark prefixed to 
the poem. 

Edwin Markham was born in Oregon City, Oregon, in 1852. 
After boyhood experiences as farmer, blacksmith, and herder, he 
became a teacher. He sprang into favor in 1899 with his poem 
"The Man with the Hoe." "The Fate of France" gives expression 
to the apprehensive fears of the days of the spring and summer of 



538 THE NOTES 

191 8 when that fate literally seemed to hang in the balance as the 
Germans lunged successfully toward Paris. 

Page 345. The Green Estaminet 

A tribute to the lowly, conscientious French girl who amid sordid 
surroundings and a hard life inspires the soldiers whom she serves 
with something of her high spirit. An estaminet is a public house. 
Soixante-dix (line 2) means "seventy," and refers to the war between 
France and Germany in 1870, of which the old Frenchmen tell great 
stories to the young English soldiers. The author of the poem is an 
Englishman. 

Page 346. Edith Cavell 

Someone has spoken of this as the only poem on Edith Cavell 
worthy of its theme. Miss Cavell was an English nurse, born in 
1872, in Norfolk. In 1906 she took charge of a nursing institute 
in Brussels, to train nurses in the new English methods. When 
the war broke out her school was transformed into a hospital for 
sick and wounded soldiers. Friend and foe alike received her ser- 
vices. In August, 191 5, she was arrested on the ground that she 
had helped French, British, and Belgian men to escape from Belgium 
in order to join the allied armies. In spite of the earnest efforts of 
the American minister, Mr.. Brand Whitlock, and the Secretary of 
the Legation, Mr. Hugh Gibson, Miss Cavell was tried and con- 
demned to death by the Germans and executed at 2:00 a.m., October 
I3» 1915- The callousness of the German military officials in the 
whole of the proceedings shocked the entire civilized world. 

Page 348. Joan of Arc to an English Sister 

"I. M." in the subtitle is the abbreviation for In Memoriam. 
The prefixed French motto may be freely translated " 'Tis pity 
that it should happen in the kingdom of France." The spirit of 
fighting France, Joan of Arc, recognizes and welcomes a sister spirit 
in Edith Cavell. Full of compassion, neither had received pity, 
but the fire of their bosoms armed their folk with "a quenchless 
might." 

Page 349. Kitchener's March 

Amelia Josephine Burr, an American writer, was born in New 
York in 1878, and graduated from Hunter College. She has pub- 
lished some half-dozen volumes of plays and poems. 



THE NOTES 539 

Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Earl Kitchener of Khartum, one of 
England's greatest modern soldiers, was born in County Kerry, 
Ireland, in 1850. He first achieved great distinction in the Khartum 
expedition in 1898, when he established the authority of Great 
Britain over the Sudan by defeating the dervishes at Omdurman. 
He played a distinguished part in the South African War, being 
commander-in-chief in 1900-1902. Later he commanded the 
English armies in India. When the world war broke out in 19 14, 
he was immediately made Secretary of State for War, and foreseeing 
a long conflict began and carried on successfully the organization 
of the new English armies long known as "Kitchener's Army." 
He was lost at sea in the destruction of the cruiser "Hampshire" 
in 19 16 while on a special mission to Russia. The general mystery 
surrounding the loss of the cruiser, which went down with practically 
all on board as a result of being torpedoed or mined off the Orkney 
Islands, gave rise to a legend that Kitchener still lives. 

Page 350. ''All the Hills and Vales Along'' 

Charles Hamilton Sorley, son of Professor W. R. Sorley of 
Cambridge, England, was born in old Aberdeen in 1895. His 
preparatory education was completed at Marlborough College in 
1913, and he received a scholarship at University College, Oxford. 
He crossed to France in May, 19 15, as a lieutenant in the Suffolk 
Regiment, was gazetted captain in August, 19 15, and killed in 
action near Hulloch, in October, 191 5. He early displayed great 
ability in verse and had "a charm of personality that is likely to 
become a tradition." His poems have appeared under the name 
Marlborough and Other Poems. In the selection chosen from this 
volume, the young soldier passionately appeals to the marching 
men to go "to the gates of death with song," thus joining the great 
of the past in contributing to the natural gladness of earth — a 
contribution that "earth will echo still" though marching foot and 
singing voice be forever mute. 

Page 35 J. A Lark above the Trenches 

Sergeant John William Streets of the York and Lancaster Regi- 
ment was a miner in Derbyshire, England, before the beginning of 
the war. He saw service in Egypt and France. He was reported 
wounded and missing in July, 19 16, and was officially recorded as 
killed in May, 19 17. His poems appeared in a little volume called 
The Undying Splendor. "The naturalness of their feeling, their 



540 THE NOTES 

unstudied simplicity of expression, the courage and spiritual exalta- 
tion they breathe .... give them power and distinction." 

Pages 352-355 

The young soldier who writes verse is almost certain to formulate 
a prayer or simple confession of faith as he faces in serious mood 
the chances of battle. The four poems on these pages are good 
examples of this tendency. 

"Richard Raleigh" is the pen name used by an English lieutenant 
of infantry. 

Sergeant Joyce Kilmer has been spoken of at length on page 522. 

William I. Grundish, at the time his poem was published, was a 
private in Company C, 15th Engineers, while John Fletcher Hall 
was a sergeant in Company A, i6ist Infantry. The poems by 
both these authors were submitted in a poetic contest conducted 
by The New York Herald to which members of the American Expe- 
ditionary Force in France contributed. 

Page 355. Death and the Fairies 

Patrick MacGill was born in County Donegal, Ireland, in 1890. 
Between the ages of twelve and nineteen he was a "farm-servant, 
byre-man, drainer, potato-digger, surface-man, navvy, etc." His 
power of composition secured him a position on the London Daily 
Express in 191 1. His writings were mainly realistic accounts of the 
lowly life of which he had been a part. He enlisted in the Irish 
Rifles and was wounded in the battle of Loos in 19 15. His Soldier 
Songs is one of the most interesting volumes of war verse. Very 
recently he has published a piece of fiction called The Doughboys, 
which centers around members of the American army, as its title 
indicates. 

Page 356. I Have a Rendezvous with Death 

Alan Seeger was born in New York, June 22, 1888. He studied 
at Harvard and went to Paris in 19 12. He was living in the Latin 
Quarter, writing and studying, when the war began. In its third 
week he enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. He fell in action, 
while charging with his company, at the village of Belloy-en- 
Santerre on July 4, 19 16. From the first his fiery spirit moved him 
to uncompromising support of the France he loved, and in his 
poems and letters his gallant spirit finds clear expression. Undoubt- 
edly his poems will rank near the top among those produced by 



THE NOTES 541 

men engaged in the actual fighting. His "I Have a Rendezvous 
with Death" has profoundly impressed itself upon the hearts of all 
its readers. "He was," says Professor W. L. Phelps, "an inspired 
poet. Poetry came from him as naturally as rain from clouds. His 
magnificent 'Ode in Memory of the American Volunteers Fallen 
in France' has a nobility of phrase that matches the elevation of 
thought. Work like this cannot be forgotten." 

Page 357. Alan Seeger 

Lieutenant Grantland Rice of New York, and more recently of 
Pershing's army in France, is a native of Tennessee. For several 
years he has been a widely read writer on sporting topics. "He is 
almost the only man I know," says Irvin Cobb, "who has made 
literature of the sporting department of a daily paper — not merely 
smart journalism, but actually literature — matter that has good 
diction, swift, sharp, crackling metaphor, deft phrasing, smooth 
clarified English. And his jingles very frequently are more than 
rhyme. They are rhythm." His baseball stories in the magazines 
catch the reader with their strong human interest. Mr. Rice's 
Songs of the Stalwart is a collection of his best verse, and includes 
the memorial poem on Alan Seeger. 

28. "They Shall Not Pass!" (lis ne passeront pas) was the rally- 
ing cry of the French armies defending their land against the German 
invaders, and particularly of those holding Verdun against the furi- 
ous attacks in 19 16. 

Page 358. From Home 

Lieutenant Mackintosh, while in England convalescing from a 
wound received at the front, read in the papers an account of an 
action in which his old regiment was engaged. How he felt about 
it is the subject of this poem. Many other soldiers invalided home 
have borne witness to a similar feeling. Having shared the dangers 
and discomforts of the trenches, they could not bear to think of 
themselves in comfort while their recent companions were going 
over the top. Hence the common insistence of wounded men that 
they be allowed to return as soon as possible. 

Page 359. The Soldier 

Rupert Brooke was born in Rugby, England, in 1887. He was 
educated at Cambridge, studied and traveled abroad, and in 19 13 
became a fellow of King's College, Cambridge. He enlisted at 



542 THE NOTES 

the beginning of the war, was in the Antwerp expedition, and later 
went to the Dardanelles. He died aboard a French hospital ship 
on April 23, 1915, and was buried in the Greek island of Skyros. 
Brooke's tremendously vital personality and the promising char- 
acter of his work threw around him, as a result of his early death, 
a certain glamor that has caught the attention of the whole world. 
Some of his sonnets, particularly "The Soldier," are among the best 
poems produced by the war. Its patriotism is not of the flamboyant 
kind, but a rich inner glow of the beauty and peace of England. 

Page 359. The Volunteer 

Herbert Asquith, son of the ex-Prime Minister of England, was 
in almost constant service throughout the war. He was commis- 
sioned a lieutenant in the Royal Marine Artillery in 19 14, was 
wounded in 191 5, and transferred to the field artillery in 1916. His 
poems, published as The Volunteer, and Other Poems, interpret in 
attractive and convincing manner the mind of the civilian soldier. 
The title poem is the epitaph of an ordinary man in a commonplace 
situation, who thought his chance for heroic deeds would be limited 
to dreaming of them, and whose dreams are suddenly brought to 
realization by war. 

Page 360. In Flanders Fields 

John McCrae, physician, soldier, and poet, was born in Guelph, 
Ontario, in 1872. He was educated at the University of Toronto, 
graduating in arts in 1894 and in medicine in 1898. His scholarly 
work in the field of pathology was widely recognized. He served 
as professor of pathology in the University of Vermont, and for 
several years before the outbreak of the war held important positions 
as lecturer in McGill University and in the Alexandria Hospital, 
Montreal. He served in the South African War (i 899-1900), and 
in 19 1 4 was appointed surgeon in the Canadian artillery in France. 
Many continuous months of service with the guns undermined his 
health, and while he was finally prevailed upon to accept a post at 
a base hospital, he continued to spend more energy than he could 
afford in looking after the welfare of the men. He died of pneumonia, 
January 28, 191 8. 

Dr. McCrae is, of course, best known to the layman by his poems 
and general essays. "In Flanders Fields" at once gained and has 
still held a wide popularity. It is the voice of the dead who will 
not sleep if the living break faith and do not carry on to victory the 



THE NOTES 54;j 

enterprise for which they gave their lives. Its striking imagery 
and its sincerity made it a clarion call to strengthen those who were 
to come after. 

Page 361. The Star^Shell 

Star-shells were used to light up "No Man's Land" and enemy 
positions at night. They were thin iron shells filled with stars, and 
were used with light muzzle-loading guns. 

Page 361 . Release 

Lieutenant William Noel Hodgson, who wrote under the name of 
"Edward Melbourne," son of the Bishop of Ipswich, was killed in 
action in the Battle of the Somme, July i, 191 6. His writings have 
appeared as Verse and Prose in Peace and War. "Refined and 
idealistic in temperament," a critic says, "his battle songs are 
consecrations." At the end of a severe experience in the hell of 
battle he finds that the heart of things is good, and though he has 
seen men broken, he knows that "man is divine." 

Page 362. The Fallen Subaltern 

It has been noted that the soldier-poets are generally at their best 
in the many elegies or memorial poems composed for their fallen 
comrades. This poem is a good illustration of such generous 
tributes. 

Page 363. ** — But a Short Time to Live'' 

This poem is a fine type of the more serious meditations of the 
soldier as he faces the probable immediacy of death. 

Page 364. The Red Cross Bloke 

The fact that the speaker had been among the scoffers adds much 
to the force of this tribute to the work of the Red Cross. 

Page 366. Death Song of the Ninth Lancers 

J. Laurence Rentoul, Australian, writes this song of the heroic 
action of one of the organizations making up the contingent from 
England's great over-seas dominion. The poem is a modern "Charge 
of the Light Brigade." One of the most notable features of the war 
was the immediate and constant support given to England by all 
her colonial dominions. 
'36 



544 THE NOTES 

Page 366, In the Morning 

This poem is interesting as a realistic picture of the results of 
battle as seen by a soldier who took part in the charge preceding 
the entry into the ruined town of Loos in September, 191 5. 

Page 368. Courage 

Lieutenant Hussey's sonnet, singing in brave fashion the "joy 
of courage," forms an appropriate introduction to the two poems 
that follow, both of which deal with the soldier's feeling as he pre- 
pares to go into action. 

Page 369. Before Action 

One of the fears that seemed to haunt the minds of many of the 
men who were not professional soldiers was that when the final 
test arrived they might not be able to play the part expected of 
them. Lieutenant Hodgson voices this feeling in the form of a 
prayer that he may be a soldier and a man, and if the necessity 
arises may die as befits both. 

Page 369. Into Battle 

Captain the Hon. Julian Henry Francis Grenfell was the only 
professional soldier who wrote a poem of wide general appeal. 
He was born in 1888, educated at Oxford, and became an officer of 
the 1st Royal Dragoons. He won the Distinguished Service Order. 
He died on May 26, 19 15, from the effect of wounds received near 
Ypres a few days before. (The spirit of Grenfell is admirably sug- 
gested in the extract from Frederick Palmer, page 104.) 

"Into Battle" should be read as an "ecstasy," an expression of 
the joy of the trained soldier at the opportunity of doing that which 
he has been trained to do. But it is more than mere ecstasy; there 
is in it "a sense that wrong within can be defeated by braving evil 
abroad. The strain between worldly custom and that passion 
for good which begets spiritual insight finds relief in fighting, looks 
for peace in death." 

Page 371 . Rouge Bouquet 

This poem, first printed in The Stars and Stripes, was written in 
memory of nineteen members of Company E, 165th Infantry, who 
were killed by a shell striking the entrance of a dugout and burying 
them under an avalanche of earth. The final lines of each part of 
the poem are to imitate the bugle notes of "Taps" sounding from 



THE NOTES 545 

a distance. Lines 40-43 are explained by the fact that this regiment 
was made up of Irishmen. 

Page 373, ''This is the LasC 

Lieutenant Gilbert Waterhouse, English writer, of the Second 
Essex Regiment, was reported wounded and missing, July i, 19 16. 
His poems were published under the title Railhead and Other Poems. 

Page 373. The Anxious Dead 

This poem may be regarded in the light of recent events as 
answering the fear expressed in "In Flanders Fields" to the satis- 
faction of the questioning dead. On this note of "the quiet dawn " 
and a faith kept, the poetry of the war may fittingly close. 

Page 383. Extra Men 

Harrison Rhodes, playwright and short-story writer, was born 
in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1871 , and graduated at Harvard. His stories, 
which appear in the best magazines and other periodicals, are 
attractive because they are so clearly imagined and expressed. 

For an interpretation of the story see page 377. 

69. Lowestoft china was made at the town of Lowestoft on the 
eastern coast of England during the latter half of the eighteenth 
century. "What our great-grandmothers used for their best 
'chaynie' was this very ornamental porcelain, which may be found 

to-day all through New England The styles of decoration 

were various, but the most familiar are those with dark blue bands, 
or dots, or other figures heavily overlaid with gold . . . . ; or 
decorations in one color, showing landscapes, figures, flowers and 
sprigs; and, most familiar of all, flowers and sprigs in natural colors, 
with delicate borders in color and gold." (Moore's The Old China 
Book.) 

Page 393. A H^mn of Hate 

Boyd Cable was born in India. In 1900-01 he served as a scout 
in South Africa. According to the accounts of his career he has 
been a teamster and a tramp in Australia, a farm hand in New 
Zealand, a manager and a partner in commercial work, a sailor 
before the mast, a trimmer, fireman, and greaser on steamships. 
His career has been sufficiently varied and has covered enough of 
the world to give him exceptional opportunities for knowing his 
fellowmen. In 19 14 he went to France and served with the British 



546 THE NOTES 

forces. His books are remarkably successful presentations in the 
form of short stories or sketches of what goes on at the front. 
Between the Lines, Action Front, Grapes of Wrath are titles given to 
three collections of these stories. 

For an interpretation of "A Hymn of Hate" see pages 377-378. 
60. Soho. The name of a district in London largely occupied 
by foreigners of various nationalities. 

72. Schweinhund, "swine hound," "pig dog," a German term of 
execration. 

136. R. I. P. Reguiescat in pace, or "Rest in peace." 

171. "Deutschland uber Alles" (Germany over [superior to] all) 

is the title of a popular German song, which reflects "the belief 

among many Germans that their Germany is to dominate the world." 

288. Lissauer's "Hymn of Hate" may be sufficiently illustrated 

by quoting the lines which the Tower Rifles sang: 

But you will we hate with a lasting hate! 
Hate by water and hate by land. 
Hate of the head and hate of the hand. 
Hate of the hammer and hate of the crown, 
Hate of seventy millions, choking down. 
We love as one, we hate as one, 
We have one foe and one alone — 
England! 

Page 402. What We Owe to France 

Major Ian Hay (John Hay Beith), English novelist and journal- 
ist, was born in 1876. He had his university training at St. John's 
College, Cambridge. With the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, 
he went in the first of the new Kitchener armies to France, where 
he won the military cross. The story of "K (i) " as told in Major 
Beith's The First Hundred Thousand constitutes one of the best 
books of the war. Ian Hay is well known in the United States, 
where he has been «very successful in extended lecture tours. 

For an interpretative note see page 379. 

25. Subalterns, junior officers, below the rank of captain. 
Grenier, loft, granary. 

36. Fermiere, woman farmer. 

67. "I am not little Jean; I am Maurrice!" 

70. Ecossais, Scotchman. 

99. "Bonne chance!" Good luck! 

III. Pas de Calais, the district of Calais. 



THE NOTES 547 

Page 412. The American Pioneer 

For an explanatory note on this selection see page 380. 

15. The conquistadores were the Spanish leaders in the conquest 
of Mexico and Peru in the sixteenth century. 

28. Homer's Odyssey tells the story of the adventures of Ulysses 
in his ten years of wanderings while he was trying to return to his 
island kingdom, Ithaca, after the close of the Trojan War. 

41. Trekked is a South African word referring usually to the trip 
to a new home made with ox-teams. 

43. The Titans were gigantic deities in ancient myth who were said 
to have piled mountains upon mountains in their efforts to scale 
Olympus, the home of the gods. 

81. The Panama Canal was opened to commercial traffic in 
August, 19 14. 

III. The famous church of St. Peter's is in Rome; the beautiful 
cathedral of Rheims, the historic place of the coronation of the kings 
of France, is now in ruins as a result of German bombardments; 
the cathedral at Salisbury is regarded as "the most beautiful of 
English ecclesiastical monuments"; the cathedral at Seville, Spain^ 
is one of the largest and grandest of Gothic structures. 

Page 416. The Bowmen 

Arthur Machen, English author and journalist, was bom in 1863. 
His famous story of "The Bowmen" appeared first in the London 
Evening News under date of September 29, 1914. 

See page 380 for explanatory paragraph. 

I. The Retreat of the Eighty Thousand has reference to the 
retreat following the battle of Mons in the early weeks of the war. 
The author uses a form of expression intended to make us think 
of the "Retreat of the Ten Thousand," the story told by Xenophon 
of that Greek army that made its way through Asia Minor. • 

18. Sedan is used to imply a crushing defeat and surrender. 
There the forces of the French surrendered to the Germans in 1870^ 
as a result of which the Empire fell and France became a republic. 

103. Bisley Common, about thirty miles from London, is a meet- 
ing-place of the National Rifle Association. 

133. The Kaiser is said to have spoken of "England's contempt- 
ible little army." The survivors of that army have adopted the 
phrase as a term of praise and speak of themselves as "the old 
contemptibles." 



548 THE NOTES 

Page 421. Yokels 

Mr. Seton's clever sketch is interpreted on page 381. 

Page 423. The Man with His Hat in His Hand 

Clark Howell, American orator and journalist, has been for many- 
years an editor of The Atlanta Constitution. 

See page 381 for an interpretation of Mr. Howell's sketch. 

68. Henry Grady (1851-1889), journalist and orator, made a 
great reputation as an interpreter of the New South. He was born 
at Athens, Georgia, and educated at the University of Georgia. 
From 1880 until his untimely death, he was part owner and editor 
of The Atlanta Constitution. In 1886 his remarkable speech on 
"The New South" was given before the New England Society in 
New York City. It was copied throughout the country and fixed 
his position in the public mind as a great orator. 

Page 426. Americanus Sum 

Edward A. Steiner was born in Vienna, Austria, in 1866. Since 
1903 he has been professor of applied Christianity at Grinnell 
College, Iowa. His studies and writings have been mainly con- 
cerned with the flood of immigrants coming to our shores. On the 
Trail of the Immigrant and The Immigrant Tide — 7/5 Ebb and Flow 
are noteworthy contributions toward the understanding of a difficult 
problem. They were written out of a sympathy gained by wide 
first-hand experience and observation. Our selection is taken from 
a volume of short stories called The Broken Wall: Stories of the 
Mingling Folk (New York and Chicago: Fleming H. Revell Co.). 

For an interpretative note see page 381. 

26. Carrara marble is the finest and whitest of statuary marble. 
The quarries are in northern Italy, near the western coast. 

106. Lire is the plural of lira, the name of an Italian coin equal to 
about twenty cents in our money. 

189. Giuseppe Garibaldi (i 807-1 882) was one of the most 
celebrated of the Italian patriots struggling in the middle years of 
the nineteenth century for the unity of Italy and its liberation from 
Austrian domination. While in exile, he became a naturalized 
citizen of the United States and lived from 1850-54 on Staten 
Island, New York, where he worked as a candle maker. His most 
famous exploit took place in i860, when he descended upon Sicily 
with a force of i ,000 red-shirted volunteers and for some time carried 



THE NOTES 549 

all before him. He foug:ht with the French against Germany in 
1870-71. At the beginning of the present war and previous to 
Italy's entrance into it, several of Garibaldi's grandsons were 
enlisted in the French Foreign Legion. 

191. Young Italy was the name of a secret revolutionary society 
of Italian republican agitators, particularly active about 1834 under 
the leadership of Mazzini. The watchwords of Young Italy were 
"liberty, equality, and humanity." Its flag was the white, red, 
and green tricolor which became the flag of the new Italian nation. 

Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-1872) was one of the most uncompro- 
mising political idealists of 'modern times. He spent most of his 
life in exile, partly voluntary, refusing to the last to have anything 
to do with a monarchical Italy. 

194. The Italians defeated the Papal troops at Castelfidardo on 
September 18, i860. The victory was an important step in the 
unification of Italy. 

Page 434, The Soldier Who Conquered Sleep 

Pierre Mille (1864-) is a brilliant French author and journalist. 
He has had a wide experience in official missions which took him to 
Madagascar, West Africa, the Congo, Indo-China, and British 
India. The material stored up as a result of his travels serves in 
good stead in creating the many types of his short stories. The 
technical skill so highly valued by the French in work of this kind 
abounds in a high degree in Mille's stories. Four of his short stories 
dealing with the war are in Tales of Wartime France (New York: 
Dodd Mead & Co.), translated by William L. McPherson. 

For an interpretative note see page 382. 

2. Young conscripts are said to belong to the class of the year 
in which they reach the age for military service. 

Croix de Guerre (cross of war), the French decoration for unusual 
instances of bravery in battle. 

60. Chic, a French word meaning stylish, of good form. 

66. Tir de barrage, a wall of shell fire, or curtain of fire. 

89. "Varnished," invulnerable, fated to escape injury. 

129. Sorbonne, the University of Paris, so called after the original 
foundation of Robert de Sorbonne. 

134-135' This passage is in Book II of the Aeneid, lines 9 and 10. 
Cranch translates: 

"Now too the humid night from heaven descends. 
And all the sinking stars persuade to sleep." 



550 THE NOTES 

Page 440. The Soul of Flanders 

Hendrik Willem van Loon, lecturer, scholar, and journalist, was 
bom at Rotterdam in 1882, graduated from Cornell University in 
1905, and later studied at Harvard and in Europe. 

2. Cadzand is a town of Holland on the sandy point south of the 
Scheldt River. (For the setting of this sketch, see Map i.) 

6. The Valkyrs, in northern mythology, are the handmaidens of 
Odin, who ride through the air and designate those who are to fall 
in battle. They are known as "the choosers of the slain." 

13. Zeebrugge, a town near the northern limit of the Belgian 
coast, an important submarine base of tlie Germans during the war. 

54> 55* Jan Breidel, master of the butchers, and Pieter de Coninck, 
master of the cloth-weavers, at Bruges, were prominent leaders of 
the Flemish popular party at the beginning of the fourteenth cen- 
tury. These "men of the claw" (Clauwaerts), so called because 
their coat of arms was the black Flemish lion, won an important 
victory over their more aristocratic opponents in the Battle of the 
Golden Spurs in 1302. The battle received its name from the 
many hundreds of gilt spurs, worn by the Knights of Artois, which 
were found on the battlefield. The van Arteveldes, Jacob and 
Philip, father and son, were popular leaders in the second and third 
quarters of the fourteenth century. Rubens (i 577-1 640) was the 
most celebrated of Flemish painters. His most familiar painting 
is "The Descent from the Cross." 

65. The collection of jokes and legends centering around the 
buffoon, Tyl Ulenspiegel (or "Owlglass"), constituted what middle 
Europe found amusing in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 
When Charles de Coster was hunting a hero of Flemish legend, this 
buffoon, who was said to have been buried in the village of Damme, 
suggested himself. Some chapters of the first book of the resulting 
epic of Flanders, The Legend of the Glorious Adventures of Tyl 
Ulenspiegel, are borrowed from the old collection, but most of the 
story was newly invented. "It is the golden legend of a people 
which suffers silently in the hands of its tormentors and never 
despairs, which laughs in its misery, and whose hope and valor 
never fail." "Ulenspiegel and his love, Nele, are the very spirit and 
soul of Flanders, and it is more than an intuition, it is a prophecy 
that when at the close of the book an attempt is made to bury them, 
they rise from the grave on the seashore, shake themselves free and 
set out on a new voyage through the land ' singing their sixth song, 
and none knoweth where the last was sung.' " 



INDEX TO AUTHORS AND TITLES 



(Names of authors are in roman; titles are in italics.) 



Ala7t Seeger, 357 

Alchin, Gordon, 319 

Alexander, Hartley B., 9 

Allsop, Henry, 297 

''All the Hills and Vales Along,'' 

350 
America, 294 
American Invasion of England, 

The, 183 
Americanism, 9 
American Pioneer, The, 412 
American Tradition, 16 
Americanus Sum, 426 
America, to Arms! 286 
Anxious Dead, The, 373 
Asquith, Herbert, 359, 362 
At the Wars, 309 
A utocracy against Democracy, 82 
Avenue of the Allies, The, 289 

Bates, Katharine Lee, 273 

Before Action, 369 

Beith, John Hay ("Ian Hay"), 

402 
Belgian Pride, 159 
Belgium the Bar-Lass, 334 
Benson, A. C, 186 
Binyon, Laurence, 295, 346 
Bourdillon, F. W., 297 
Bowmen, The, 416 
Boy Over There, A , 303 
Bramhall, Frederick D., 82 
Brier, Lon, 298 
Britain's War Aims, 163 
Brooke, Rupert, 359 
Brown, Abbie Farwell, 275 
Bryce, James, 138 
Burnet, Dana, 317 
Burr, Amelia Josephine, 349 
" — But a Short Time to Live," 

363 
Cable, Boyd, 393 
Carman, Bliss, 279 
Channing, Grace Ellery, 340 
Cha Till Maccruimein, 307 



Childs, William, 314 
Coulson, Leslie, 305, 363 
Courage, 368 
Cricketers of Flanders, The, 329 

Daniel, Hawthorne, 406 

Dawn, 332 

Dawson, Eric P., 299 

Dead Aviator, The, 340 

Death and the Fairies, 355 

Death Song of the Ninth Lancers^ 

366 
Declaration of Independence, The 

(quoted), 2 
Declaration of Independence, The, 

286 
Democracy, 74 

Democracy and Education, 186 
Dodd, Lee Wilson, 330 

Easter, 1918, 331 
Edith Cavell, 346 
Empty Coat, The, 298 
Ennobling Tragedy, 179 
Extra Men, 383 
Eyes in the Air, 335 

Facing the Shadows, 354 
Fallen Subaltern, The, 362 
Fate of France, The, 344 
Father of the Man, The, 300 
Fiery Pillar, The, 449 
Finley, John H., 118 
Flag Day Address, 43 
Foley, James W., 315 
''Form Fours,'' 321 
Frankau, Gilbert, 335 
From Home, 358 

Gamett, Louise Ayres, 278, 449 
Garrison, Theodosia, 282, 286 
George, David Lloyd. See Lloyd 

George, David. 
Gibbs, E. D., 335 
Gillilan, Strickland, 299 
Girl's Song, A, 304 
Glaenzer, Richard Butler, 343 



551 



552 



THE INDEX 



Great Blue Tent, The, 287 
Green Estaminet, The, 345 
Grenfell, Julian H. F., 369 
Grundish, William I., 354 
Guest, Edgar A., 300 

H., A. P.. 345 

Hagedorn, Hermann, 124 
Half -Hour's Furlough, The, 325 
Half-Past Eleven Square, 322 
Hall, James Norman, 329 
Hall, John Fletcher, 354 
Hankey, Donald (quoted), 194 
Hardy, Thomas, 277 
"Hay, Ian," 402 
Henderson, Arthur, 175 
Henderson, Daniel M., 332 
Here: and There, 297 
High Heart, 306 
Hodgson, W. N., 361, 369 
Home Thoughts in Laventie, 310 
Hope of the World, The, 124 
Howell, Clark, 423 
Hussey, Dyneley, 305, 368 
Hymn of Hate, A , 393 
Hymn of the Airman in the 
Hour of Battle, 337 

/ Have a Rendezvous with Death, 
356 

In Flanders Fields, 360 

In France, 307 

In Homeland, 303 

In the Morning, 366 

In the Time of Strife, 277 

Into Battle, 369 

Introductory, to Part I, 3; Part 
II, 131; Part III, 195; Part IV, 
267; Part V, 377; Part VI, 445 

Issues of the War, The, 66 

Joan of Arc to an English Sister, 
348 

Kelly, Blanche M., 340 
Kettle, Thomas M., 328 
Kilmeny, 320 
Kilmer, Aline, 306 
Kilmer, Joyce, 283, 353, 371 
Kiphng, Rudyard, 183 
Kitchener's March, 349 
Knights, The, 275 



Lads of Liege, The, 332 
Lane, Franklin K., 16, in, 412 
Lark above the Trenches, ^,351 
Law of High, Resolute Endeavor, 

The, 91 
Ledwidge, Francis, 307 
Lee, Joseph, 325 
Letters from Home, 299 
Lettersfrom the Fighting Men, 200 
Letts, Winifred M., 308 
Lloyd George, David, 163 
Lowell, James Russell, 74 

MacGill, Patrick, 355, 361, 366 
Machen, Arthur, 416 
Mackaye, Percy, 332 
Mackereth, James A., 337 
Mackintosh, E. A., 307, 358 
Maeterlinck, Maurice, 155 
Man-Birds, The, 335 
Man with His Hat in His Hand, 

The, 423 
Marching Song, 317 
Markham, Edwin, 344 
Mathews, Shailer, 84 
McCrae, John, 360, 373 
Meaning of the Declaration of 

Independence, The, 24 
Memorial Day, 282 
Men Who March Away, 277 
Message from France, A, 118 
Michaelis, Aline, 312 
Mille, Pierre, 434 
Moral Value of Patriotism, The, 

84 
Morehouse, Frederic C., 79 
Mount Vernon Address, The, 61 
M-f/-Z), 324 
Murray, Gilbert, 179, (quoted), 

130 
Mutterer, Frederick G., 113 
My Debt to My Country, 113 

Name of France, The, 342 
New Crusade, The, 273 
Nichols, Robert, 309 
Noyes, Alfred, 289, 294, 320 

Old Kings, The, 274 
On Leaving Ireland, 328 
O'Shaughnessy, Arthur (quoted), 
444 



THE INDEX 



553 



Our Hitch in Hell, 314 
Oxenham, John, 324 

Palmer, Frederick, 104 
Peace with a Sword, 463 
Pope, Jessie, 302 
Prayer from the Ranks, A, 354 
Prayer of a Soldier in France, 353 
Problem of Democracy, The, 79 
Program of the World's Peace, 51 
Pro P atria, 155 
Pro Patria, 292 

Qui Vive? 340 

"Raleigh, Richard," 352 

Red Cross Bloke, The, 364 

Release, 361 

Rentoul, J. Laurence, 366 

Renunciation, 299 

Rhodes, Harrison, 383 

Rice, Grantland, 357 

Richards, John, 331 

Righteous and Triumphant Force, 

56 
Road, The, 319 
Robinson, A. Mary P., 334 
Roosevelt,Theodore, 91 (quoted), 

376 
Rouge Bouquet, 371 

S., J. H., 348 

ScoUard, Clinton, 289, 303 

Seaman, Sir Owen, 292 

Seeger, Alan, 356 

Seton, Harold, 421 

Shoulder to Shoulder, 289 

Sidgwick, Frank, 321 

Smith, C. Fox, 322 

Socks, 302 

Soldier, The, 359 

Soldier's Litany, A, 352 

Soldier Who Conquered Sleep, 

The, 434 
Some Things Men Fight For, 104 
Song of Liberty, 278 
Sorley, Charles Hamilton, 350 
Soul of Flanders, The, 440 



Spires of Oxford, The, 308 
Spirit of America, The, iii 
Spirit of Democracy, The, 175 
Spirit of France, The, 147 
Stanton, Frank L., 277, 303 
Star-Shell, The, 361 
Steiner, Edward A,, 426 
Streets, John William, 351 
Sympathy, 313 

Tecumseh and the Eagles, 279 
Tennant, E. Wyndham, 310 
' ' They Have Come for the Sake 

of France,'^ 406 
Things That Were Yours, 305 
''This is the Last," 373 
To My Daughter Betty, 328 
To the American People, 295 
TynaQ, Katharine, 304 

Union, The, 294 

van Dyke, Henry, 342 

van Loon, Hendrik Wiliem, 440 

Verhaeren, Emile, 159 

Vive la Francel 343 

Viviani, Rene, 147 

Volunteer, The, 359 

WagstafT, Blanche Shoemaker, 

286 
War Message, The, 30 
Waterhouse, Gilbert, 373 
Wharton, E(^th, 287 
What Can I Do? 330 
What England Stands For, 138 
What We Owe to France, 402 
When I Come Home, 305 
While Summers Pass, 312 
White Ships and the Red, The, 28t, 
Widdemer, Margaret, 274 
Wilson, Woodrow, 24, 30, 43, 51, 

56, 61, 66 
Wood, Eleanor Duncan, 294 

Yanks, 315 

Yokels, 421 . . 

Young and Old, 297 




Longitude West from Greenirich Longitude East from G> 



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